Description
Set up, operate, and document electrical and mechanical tests on AC and DC electric motors to verify performance, diagnose faults, and ensure compliance with specifications and safety standards.
- • Set up and operate motor test stands for AC and DC motors.
- • Connect motors to power supplies, VFDs, and load equipment per wiring diagrams.
- • Measure voltage, current, power, torque, speed, and phase balance with test instruments.
- • Perform insulation resistance, hipot, and surge tests on windings.
- • Measure winding resistance and impedance and compare to specifications.
- • Conduct no-load, locked-rotor, and loaded performance tests.
- • Monitor temperature rise, vibration, and noise during tests.
- • Calculate efficiency, power factor, and slip from test data.
- • Inspect windings, leads, brushes, commutators, and insulation before testing.
- • Verify rotation direction and phase sequence.
- • Align shafts and couplings and set belt tension as required.
- • Install and remove couplings, guards, sensors, and alignment fixtures.
- • Use dynamometers, load banks, tachometers, power analyzers, and oscilloscopes.
- • Configure data acquisition systems, HMIs, and VFD parameters for test profiles.
- • Record test setups, results, and nonconformances with traceable documentation.
- • Generate test reports and certificates and communicate findings to repair or engineering teams.
- • Tag units that fail tests and provide diagnostic notes and recommendations.
- • Verify shaft runout, endplay, and critical dimensions with gauges.
- • Check commutator and slip ring condition and document runout.
- • Balance rotors or perform trim balancing checks when required.
- • Clean terminals and connection points to ensure safe, low-resistance contacts.
- • Prepare and secure test leads and connections to ensure reliable measurements.
- • Maintain stocks of test leads, adapters, sensors, and consumables.
- • Calibrate meters, sensors, and analyzers and maintain calibration records.
- • Follow lockout tagout, NFPA 70E, and other electrical safety procedures.
- • Move and position motors using cranes, hoists, and rigging; signal operators as needed.
- • Read schematics, nameplates, service guides, and standards to determine test requirements.
- • Set acceptance criteria per NEMA, IEEE, EASA, or customer specifications.
- • Maintain a clean, organized, and safe test area.
- • Use computer software to log data and generate plots and summaries.
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Advanced Manufacturing
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This site includes information from O*NET by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA), used under the CC BY 4.0 license. Career Clutch has modified some of this information for student readability. USDOL/ETA has not approved, endorsed, or tested these modifications. O*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA.
Last reviewed: Jan 2026
