A little electrical help....

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Kerry Norton

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 21, 2008
Messages
105
Looking at a nice garage sized milling machine. Need to go from 220 household to 575 3 phase. I believe (and feel free to offer any other solutions) the best way to go is a VFD to convert 222 single phase to 220 3 phase then a transformer to step it up to 575. The mill's motor is 2 hp, 2.1 amps. How do I figure out the the transformer size required?

any help is appreciated Kerry

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Hi Kerry,

It's been a lot of years since doing one but what we used many years ago was called a phaser (cost $275.00 back then) to convert single phase to three phase for residential installations. Our Bridgeport was 220V, I don't recall ever dealing with anything with 575V's. Most of our in plant installs had overhead bus bars with 440V and we could pull off 220V drops for the machines. Hope this helps.

Thanks, John
 
I have a vfd on mine,and wouldn't have it any other way. I don't have a clue on the transformer thing though. I think a new motor is best.should be able to find one on ebay
 
I've never seen a 575v motor either. If the rest of the machine is 220v, I'd swap out the motor as well. Now, lets talk transformers.

Going from the numbers listed in post 1, 575v and 2.1amps gives you a draw of 1207.5 watts. This gives you your secondary output requirements and what you need to have going into your primary side. Since we know the primary side has 220v, if you divide your wattage by 220, you find you need an input current of 5.4886amps or a bit more for losses, kind of like prop slippage. Now that we know how much power is going to run through the transformer, we need to determine the turns ratio, what steps the voltage up or down from one side to the other. To determine this, you divide the higher number, 575, by the smaller, 220. Since the 220 is smaller, it will be referred to as 1 and listed first since it's the primary side. The secondary side, listed second, will use the quotient of the input and output voltages, in this case being 2.613. This means that you will need a transformer with a minimum rating of 1225 to 1250 watts with a turns ratio of approximately 1:2.62

One thing I forgot. If you can't find a transformer that will meet your needs exactly, you can go with a slightly higher ratio but never go lower. Going with a lower ratio will increase the amperage to the motor and could burn it out
 
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Thank you, the 575 is a Canadian thing, no idea why but you come across it regularly here. Those unfamiliar with a vdf, it is inexpensive and gives you variable spindle rpm, this with a transformer can be done for less than the old rotary phase converters. thanks again Kerry
 
Kerry, Give me a call in the morning at 509-922-2060. I work for a company called A.R.Tools and machinery. I can help you out. Thanks Dustin
 

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