Welcome to the MotorTalk Energized Electric Motor Testing (EMT) Messageboard. This site is both for people that currently use motor test instruments to inspect motors, as well as anyone that has questions or comments about the technology, motor operation, testing and troubleshooting of motors. Through the use of forums such as this we can collectively help one another advance the capability of motor testing technologies and professionalism, as well as expanding our individual knowledge.
In the area of reliability, other testing technologies—such as vibration, infrared, oil analysis, ultrasonics, etc.—are more mature, where EMT is relatively new. There are several vendors of motor test instruments. This site is vendor neutral and you are welcome to post questions, comments and answer questions without regard to which equipment type you own or are thinking of buying. Although the hardware and software may be different, all of the instruments on the market today are capable of diagnosing numerous potential motor and motor circuit faults.
This forum is for Energized motor tests as well as power quality issues. Because there are various manufacturers of the testing equipment, there can be many different terms used. Here is a list of the terms that I would suggest we try to use so we can standardize to make our discussions clear and more accurate.
EMT- Electric Motor Testing- used to describe any form of motor testing, energized or de-energized.
EMD- Electric Motor Diagnostics- used to describe any form of motor testing, energized or de-energized.
MCA-Motor Circuit Analysis- used to describe de-energized motor or motor circuit testing.
MCE-Motor Circuit Analysis- used to describe de-energized motor or motor circuit testing.
MCSA-Motor Current Signature Analysis-used to describe current analysis in a FFT format.
ESA-Electrical Signature Analysis-used to describe voltage and current analysis in a FFT format.
Off-line Testing- used to describe de-energized motor or motor circuit testing.
On-line Testing- used to describe any energized motor or motor circuit testing.