Maintaining and Repairing Inverters
Maintaining and Repairing Inverters – IDS are approved Value Providers for ABB inverters and we have been an ABB partner for over 20 years.
ABB inverters are fundamentally reliable electronic devices, especially if installed correctly and situated in the correct environment. Inverters need to be kept cool, dry and away from dust and vibration. If this is done, then an inverter can run for over 20 years.
This reliability, however, hides a problem. Because ABB inverters are so reliable, maintenance is often neglected which means that some inverters do fail prematurely. ABB offer a preventative maintenance schedule for each model. In general, the cooling fans (the only moving part on an inverter) need replacing every 3 to 5 years and the capacitors need replacing at around 9 years. If this is done to schedule, then the inverter will have a significantly longer life. If the inverter is on a critical application, then it should be inspected, checked, tested and cleaned more frequently, usually on an annual basis. If an inverter fails, there will clearly be the cost of repair or replacement but very often it is the downtime that costs significantly more!
What To Do In The Event Of A Failure
If there is an inverter failure then IDS offers full backup. We have some £400k of new inverters on stock. Often, for smaller inverters, a replacement is best option, so access to our stock would be the answer. For bigger inverters, IDS hold 9 spares suitcases, one for each specific inverter model. These suitcases are filled with the spares regularly required to affect a repair. These include cooling fans, cards, capacitors, diodes and IGBTs. These suitcases allow IDS engineers to quickly attend site to repair inverters.
An alternative to on-site repair is to replace a (large) failed inverter with a hire inverter. This will be the quickest way of restoring production and then the failed inverter can be repaired back at our workshop. We have 65 hire inverters available, up to 560kW. This is often the route our customers take to ensure minimum down time.
IDS offer this maintenance and repair service backed up with a genuine 24/7 emergency line manned by qualified ABB engineers, which is available to all our customers who take enter an Inverter Service Agreement with us.
Maintaining and Repairing Inverters – Want to Know More?
The first step in arranging a maintenance service with us is a chat! Andrew White our Service Manager will talk to you about your inverters, their environment, age and run times. He will then be able to suggest a service schedule. Call us on 0115 944 1036 or email [email protected] to arrange this initial chat.