EMA Inc. | Norcross, GA | Tech Articles

A man standing next to a wall of remote monitoring tools

What you need to know about DriveScan: a Remote Monitoring Tool

A basic internet search of medium voltage drive manufacturers often creates more questions than answers, with dense blocks of dry information and little else in the way of conversational language. That’s where EMA Inc. stands out from the crowd. We’re here to talk to you like a person, whether you do business with us or not. Our innovative, industry-leading DriveScan remote monitoring tool provides continuous, comprehensive monitoring for medium voltage drives — perfect for drive health monitoring, predictive actions, increased drive uptime,…

Buyer’s Guide: How to Choose a Medium Voltage VFD

Do you find yourself in the market for a new medium voltage variable frequency drive? Where do you begin? Well, you’ve come to the right place. EMA is the industry leader when it comes to variable frequency drives, and we’re happy to point you in the right direction. This is a big investment, one that should last you 20 years or more, and there are several factors to consider before purchasing; not all variable frequency drives are created equally. Some of the more important factors are: capacitor type, pre-charge circuitry,…

peace of mind with remote monitoring drives & medium voltage vfd

VFD Remote Monitoring Brings Peace of Mind

Who doesn’t need a little extra peace in their life? You deal with enough stress in your job; failures on your Medium Voltage Drives should not be one of them. EMA and Powerside have partnered to develop a solution to remotely monitor the health of your Medium Voltage VFDs from anywhere in the world. The way you currently monitor your Medium Voltage VFDs does not bring about peace in your life, it keeps you up at night, wondering what will…

Strong Year for Our Medium Voltage VFD Repair and Service Business

2020 has most assuredly been a strange year. We’ve had to deal with Covid issues just like almost every other business in America, but this has been a strong year for our medium voltage VFD repair and service business. We’ve had this strong year repairing and servicing medium voltage VFDs despite the overall economic slowdown. We attribute it to several factors, and the first one is going to sound like bragging (but it’s simply a fact) Our reputation for repair…

Changes in the Siemens MV VFD Brand Family

Over the past 10 years, EMA has been heavily involved with repairing and servicing Medium Voltage VFDs. The most common drive we service, both in the field and in our repair shop, is the Siemens Perfect Harmony MV VFD. The Siemens/Robicon Perfect Harmony Drive was the first successful voltage-source medium voltage VFD in the industry. The H-Bridge design uses low voltage, single-phase output power modules cascaded together to generate medium voltage using low voltage power components. This simple and inexpensive…

Remote Monitoring of Medium Voltage Drives Saves You Time and Headaches

There is never a good time for a Medium Voltage Drive to fail. Does this scenario sound familiar to you? Your Medium Voltage Drive fails in the middle of the night, your on-call technician, although very sharp, is not a VFD expert, everyone at the manufacture’s tech support is asleep, and the drive’s fault code has you scratching your head. Before the days of remote monitoring, this scenario would cost your production days or even weeks of downtime as you…

Medium Voltage Drive with DriveScan running

Why Remote Monitoring Your Medium Voltage Drives is the Superior Method

If you have medium voltage drives, then you know how challenging it can be to monitor, take readings, troubleshoot, and get them back online when a failure occurs. In this article, EMA’s Trey Mayfield discusses the shortcomings of widely accepted traditional methods and how you can save yourself a lot of headaches, time, and money with a new method using a remote monitoring solution. Why Existing Drive Monitoring Methods Aren’t Good Enough Medium voltage variable frequency drives are complex pieces…

EMA Announces DriveScan – Revolutionary New Remote Monitoring Solution for Medium Voltage Drives

We’re excited to announce that EMA has formed an exclusive partnership with Powerside to develop a fully integrated, remote monitoring solution for medium voltage drives. Powerside has long been established as leaders in power quality and conditioning, which makes for a perfect marriage with EMA, the world-wide leader in medium voltage drive service. We bring over 50 years of combined experience to the development of this product. The product, called DriveScan, remotely monitors many aspects of your medium voltage VFD,…

Medium Voltage Drive Powers Cells: Refurbish, Repair, Replace or Roll the Dice?

As we’ve recently outlined, there are many factors that contribute to medium voltage VFD power cell life. With care and planning (or a preventative maintenance program), your electrical equipment can last a long time. However, there is a stark reality to all electronics: eventually, they all fail. The question many maintenance managers find themselves asking is, “What measures should I take when it comes to extending the life of my medium voltage VFDs?” Depending on your budget, time frame, and…

What Affects MV Power Cell Life?

Unlike low voltage variable frequency drives where the topology is consistent from manufacturer to manufacturer; medium voltage variable frequency drives come in a wide variety of topologies. The majority of medium voltage VFD manufacturers utilize some sort of power cell technology in their drives. By making the output section modular, the user is able to get up and running quickly by simply swapping the power module instead of troubleshooting down to individual components within that module. The design varies a…