I have a wood lathe (Ejca TLS30) wich runs on 1 phase 230V, but the motor is a 3 phase motor, driven by a Hitachi inverter (HFC-VWE 2.5SBE) with stepless speed control. The lathe is 30 years old, but they still make them more or less unchanged.
The problem is that a few days ago it reduced the speed to less then half. The speed control (a 1K potentiometer connected to the iverter) still works as before, but with much lower speed. I've also tested the pontentiometer, and it gives plausible values.
With my limited knowledge on 3 phase motors I thought "hey, maybe the motor has lost a phase and runs on only 2 phases", but the mighty Google told me that in that case the motor wouldn't start at all.
My local supplier wants to sell me the inverter, without too much explenation on what might be the problem, but it's about $1400, which is a bit pricy, if the problem is the motor.
Does this sound like an inverter problem, or may this problem be related to the motor instead?
The problem is that a few days ago it reduced the speed to less then half. The speed control (a 1K potentiometer connected to the iverter) still works as before, but with much lower speed. I've also tested the pontentiometer, and it gives plausible values.
With my limited knowledge on 3 phase motors I thought "hey, maybe the motor has lost a phase and runs on only 2 phases", but the mighty Google told me that in that case the motor wouldn't start at all.
My local supplier wants to sell me the inverter, without too much explenation on what might be the problem, but it's about $1400, which is a bit pricy, if the problem is the motor.
Does this sound like an inverter problem, or may this problem be related to the motor instead?