Importing Machinery from Europe

[newyorkleather]

Wondering if anyone with some knowledge in electricity and motors could give me some pointers on importing some used leathergoods machinery from Europe. I have the opportunity to purchase the following items a Camoga band knife splitter and an ATOM die clicker press. Both of these work on three phase 380 Volt current.

Does anyone know what would be involved in converting these machines for use in the U.S.? Would I have to change the motors or would it be possible to run them off converters?

Thanks.

[Art]

New motors and controls will do the job. As there aren't a lot of controls in those two pieces this shouldn't be too costly. The other less intrusive option is to employ a Variable Frequency Drive for each machine. These are somewhat pricey, but not terribly so, and are a lot cleaner (read less work) conversion. If you have big costly motors and controls, then the VFD is really more cost effective. There are also fixed frequency devices, but the prices may be close to identical (same parts inside, just no buttons).

Art

Wondering if anyone with some knowledge in electricity and motors could give me some pointers on importing some used leathergoods machinery from Europe. I have the opportunity to purchase the following items a Camoga band knife splitter and an ATOM die clicker press. Both of these work on three phase 380 Volt current.

Does anyone know what would be involved in converting these machines for use in the U.S.? Would I have to change the motors or would it be possible to run them off converters?

Thanks.

[Vikti]

If you keep the same motors you have the problem of 3 phase power, unless you already have access to it but I doubt that it's 380v. Otherwise you'll burn that motor up in a heartbeat. I would recommend something along the lines of a VFD because they can control the amount of voltage going through it (you'll have a hard time getting 380v otherwise because it's not a standard 3 phase voltage. Here it's 120/208 & 277/480) so you'll need to check into something that can choke down 480v. I wouldn't recommend a standard motor control because they don't regulate the voltage, they just use what's fed to it and trip off if there's an overload, mainly to start and stop it.

If you can the machines are really worth it I would check out about changing the motors

Edited February 13, 2009 by Vikti

[Henry]

I would suggest it isn't worth the effort of shipping the machines all the way from Europe. Machines are a bargain these days here in North America and you don't have to do anything to the currency. I can sell you either of these machines from here in Canada if interested.

Just let me know if interested.

Thanks,

Henry Veenhoven

416-231-1870

My Email