The downtime of a machine can have serious ramifications to a company’s operations. Manufacturers must be prepared and have a plan in place, should something go wrong.  When manufacturers first detect a fault, they should inspect the equipment and determine the best fix. Once they have established the cause, they must decide whether to repair or replace the part.

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An Insulated Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) is part of the setup of  a VFD (Variable Frequency Drive). If you look in more depth at a VFD, one easy way to analyse it is to think of it in three main parts: the bridge converter, DC link, and the inverter. An IGBT is the inverter element in a VFD, pulsing voltage at an extremely rapid rate.

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In many manufacturing plants, machines can occasionally be quite old and therefore when an obsolete component of the machine breaks, it may be difficult to find a new replacement. For certain types of machine, there are sometimes no up-to-date replacements available and so the replacement must be like-for-like. Sourcing a second-hand part is often a go-to for manufacturers, but it does not come without downfalls.

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