Customer-Centric | A Brief Account of a STEP Commissioning Engineer
2019-08-01
It turns out he's a tech geek.
As a variable-frequency drive (VFD) technical support engineer, I’m deeply fascinated by new products and emerging technologies. After joining STEP Motor Company, I discovered that the company’s ME800 high-voltage VFD specifically designed for internal mixers can perfectly drive permanent-magnet synchronous motors in the rubber industry using MTPA mode, thereby achieving energy savings and emission reductions. This piqued my interest immensely, and I’m eager to go onsite and participate in the commissioning of the ME800 high-voltage VFD.
After a period of training (studying relevant materials), the opportunity finally arose: my supervisor assigned me and a colleague to commission a ME800 high-voltage variable-frequency drive. After arriving at the site and performing the standard wiring, we connected the encoder to the motor and carried out self-learning for both the permanent-magnet synchronous motor and the encoder. Following adjustments to the MTPA operating mode, the VFD started driving the internal mixer. After feeding in the material and loading it, the system ran smoothly. When we checked the no-load current, we found that it was more than 90% lower than the no-load current typically seen in conventional asynchronous motors—truly achieving significant energy savings.
The STEP ME800 series frequency converters are widely used in the rubber industry. I’ve been fortunate enough to commission several high-voltage frequency converters specifically designed for ME800 internal mixers, and I feel deeply honored to be able to make a tangible contribution to the nation’s energy-saving and emission-reduction efforts.
For the Spring Festival, we rushed to Tangshan in just 26 hours.
The Spring Festival, a joyous holiday celebrated by families across the country, was especially memorable in 2019. On the first day of the Lunar New Year, at 7 p.m., I received an urgent call from a rubber-processing plant in Tangshan, Hebei Province. The customer reported that the high-voltage variable-frequency drive used on-site could no longer function normally after being shut down for maintenance. Since the on-site technicians had already gone home for the holidays, there was an urgent need for STEP to dispatch specialized technical personnel to the site immediately to help troubleshoot the problem and quickly restore production.
It was right during the Chinese New Year holiday, and virtually no one from STEP’s various departments was at work. To pick up emergency spare parts from the company, we had to coordinate across multiple departments. At a time like this, the company’s usual customer-centric philosophy proved incredibly effective. After urgent contact by department leaders, production, warehouse, logistics, and other relevant departments promptly dispatched personnel to the company. With their concerted efforts and assistance, I was able to successfully obtain the spare parts.
At this point, after several setbacks due to the flight tickets being sold out, I finally managed to snag a high-speed rail ticket for an early-morning trip from Shanghai to Tangshan on the second day of the Lunar New Year. In the afternoon of the second day of the Lunar New Year, I finally arrived in Tangshan and rushed as quickly as possible to the customer’s site to investigate the cause of the frequency converter’s malfunction.
After inspection, it was discovered that the customer had mistakenly changed the control mode to VF mode when modifying the parameters. In fact, the motor at this site is a permanent-magnet synchronous motor, which requires the MTPA (Maximum Torque per Ampere) mode. After correcting the parameter settings, the inverter started operating normally, and the feeding and production process proceeded without any issues.
On-site debugging
As the hour hand pointed to 9 p.m. on the second day of the lunar new year, only 26 hours had passed since the customer’s repair request was submitted. Our timely and professional service earned the customer’s full recognition. At the site, I also provided technical training to the manufacturer’s staff. After learning that the fault was not caused by a hardware issue with the inverter, the customer’s leadership became even more confident in the quality and service of STEP products.
Putting the customer first and always keeping the customer’s needs in mind is STEP unwavering pursuit—and it’s also what motivates us to provide even better service to our customers.
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