Air pressure at sea level is 14.7 pounds per square inch. Once you reach 50,000 feet above sea level, air pressure is only about 1.6 pounds per square inch. Of course, your servos aren’t sitting at 50,000 feet. Mt. Everest — the world’s highest peak — tops out at 29,029 feet above sea level. So even if you built your factory in the “death zone“, you still have a long way to go before you’d reach that 1.6 psi. However, altitude does affect your Indramat components, even at lower elevations.
How does altitude affect Indramat components?
Altitude affects servo performance by influencing pressure and temperature.
The closer to sea level you get, the greater the air pressure on your machinery. Gases under higher pressure are hotter than gases under lower pressure. Thus, elevation can also affect ambient temperature.
The power specs for an Indramat servo motor are based on an ambient temperature of about 40 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit and altitude of up to .62 miles, or 3,273 feet of elevation.
If both the altitude and the temperature are outside these ranges, you have to consider both factors.
Your factory’s in Denver? They don’t call it the Mile High City for nothing. You’ll have to make adjustments. Denver in winter? Adjust some more. New Orleans in the summer? Adjust in the other direction.
This isn’t the kind of problem that comes up with any frequency. Even if you use your Indramat servos in Death Valley, you don’t carry them up to Mt. Whitney the next day and then bring them back down in a couple of weeks. Any adjustments and recalculations for altitude were probably done a long time ago, and they probably won’t change.
Consider all of the factors.
There are a lot of things that can affect the efficiency and performance of your Indramat components. Your altitude might not have changed since the components were configured, but the average ambient temperature probably has.
And if you’re bringing in used Indramat servos, you should certainly be conscious of the altitude they’ve been accustomed to, and consider the difference when you set expectations for the kind of power they can provide — compared with the kind of power you were led to expect.
Need help with your Indramat components? We’re experts. We can often provide support over the phone, and we can fly out with emergency units if that’s what you need. Call 479-422-0390 for immediate support, or contact us online.