The variable frequency drive that controls your motor and whatever the application is critical to ensure processes continue with no unexpected downtime. ABB offers a service to help make this happen. In this episode, host Mike Murphy is joined by Michelle Schwery, director of sales and marketing for U.S. Motion Service, to discuss lifecycle management.
Learn more about Lifecycle Management
Learn more about ABB Drives Services
The variable frequency drive that controls your motor and whatever the application is critical to ensure processes continue with no unexpected downtime. ABB offers a service to help make this happen. In this episode, host Mike Murphy is joined by Michelle Schwery, director of sales and marketing for U.S. Motion Service, to discuss lifecycle management.
Learn more about Lifecycle Management
Learn more about ABB Drives Services
Welcome to the ABB Solutions Podcast, where we address challenges faced in our industry. I'm your host, Mike Murphy, coming to you from Greenville, South Carolina. I have with me today Michelle Schwery, Director of Sales and Marketing for US Motion Service. Michelle is here to speak with us on Lifecycle Management. Thanks for being here with us, Michelle.
Michelle Schwery:Absolutely. Thanks for having me.
Mike Murphy:The variable frequency drive that controls your motor in, whatever the application, is critical to ensure processes continue with no unexpected downtime. ABB offers a service to help make this happen. Michelle, I know the industry speaks a lot on uptime, maintenance and service. But ABB has what's called Lifecycle Management. So, can you explain what this is?
Michelle Schwery:Lifecycle Management provides a set of lifetime extending services available for customers to increase the total, usable life of their ABB drive products and reduce their total cost of ownership.
Mike Murphy:Okay, so let me expand on Lifetime. Can you go a little bit deeper with that? What does that mean?
Michelle Schwery:Sure. So, preventative maintenance is a great example. Everyone understands that their car needs maintenance to keep running well and not leave you stranded somewhere on the side of the road. We're surrounded by electronics every day. But often we don't think about maintaining those devices. Drives are power electronics, running hundreds or even thousands of amps through them. They have parts that wear out over time and need to be replaced. Those can be filters, fans, capacitors and other components. From our long experience with this type of equipment, we can forecast when it's best to perform the various maintenance services to keep our drives, our customers drives, running for a long time.
Mike Murphy:Okay. Yes, certainly electronic components; they don't last forever. I know I've actually had to replace my Xbox a time or two already. Can you tell us about how long does someone or can someone expect a drive to last?
Michelle Schwery:That's a great question. This will definitely depend on the environment the drives are installed in and how they're maintained. Drives in a clean, friendly environment and properly maintained can last thirty years or more. Drives installed in a hot, dirty environment may only last a few years before you start seeing those faults and failures occur.
Mike Murphy:Okay, Michelle, what is an example to properly maintain a drive? What does that mean?
Michelle Schwery:Um, yeah, absolutely. A properly maintained drive, that is regularly serviced, will need the age based components replaced as we get to that 9 year mark in the life cycle. Could be sooner and depending on the environment. ABB has a program where we take that drive into our facility. We clean it - clean all of the components. We replace those age based components making it like new. And that service is also going to come with a 2-year warranty. Potentially, that could save a customer up to 40% of the cost of a new drive.
Mike Murphy:Wow, that's that's a substantial cost savings for sure. So, in a difficult environment, does maintenance really matter? Or is the is the environment just going to be too much for the drive to handle?
Michelle Schwery:Well, maintaining a piece of equipment is always going to help. So depending on that environment, we would recommend more frequent and maybe more specific maintenance. So, for example, if the drive is exposed to a lot of dust, more regular cleaning of the heatsink to improve cooling is always going to help. If circuit boards are also exposed to that dust, maybe an annual cleaning of those boards. We can create a custom maintenance plan for really any environment and any customer's needs.
Mike Murphy:Okay, frequent maintenance. Michel, how often would we recommend a facility perform a maintenance service?
Michelle Schwery:by the customer's local technician that's had some proper training in that annual checkup, or an ABB service technician. And we have a regular recommended maintenance schedule for any drive. And those maintenance intervals are going to start at that 3 year mark and go 3 years, 6 years, 9 years, 12 years with a customer doing an annual checkup on those drives in the off years. And then depending on the criticality of the application, we may recommend that the ABB service technician perform that annual checkup for the customer.
Mike Murphy:Okay, great. Are there any other Lifecycle Services that ABB offers. beside that besides this preventative maintenance?
Michelle Schwery:Some of the additional Lifecycle Services that we have are your spare parts, having critical spares on your site, repairs, commissioning, customer training, upgrades, retrofits, and of course, our digital solutions. And then you always have the option for service agreements. They're available throughout the lifecycle of that drive and allow you to create really a unique combination of Lifecycle Services based on your needs and install base.
Mike Murphy:Okay, great. Michelle, I've certainly learned a lot more about ABB Services. And it's nice to hear that ABB, they build a quality product, but they also stay with you during the entire lifecycle of that product. So that that's really nice to know. So, my last question is, where can someone go to learn more about ABB Lifecycle Services?
Michelle Schwery:Absolutely. So just go to the ABB Drive Services webpage. And you'll find though, that link in the show notes.
Mike Murphy:Okay, great. Yes, make sure you look for those additional web links on your podcast page. So we're going to stop right here. Michelle, this has been great. Thank you so much. Remember, if you would like more information, contact your local ABB sales representative or visit us at www.abb.com. If you have any questions or ideas on future podcasts, send us an email at us-solutions@abb.com. Thanks and have a great rest of your day.