How to use drive monitoring (DSI): nameplate, service windows, and factory plan

This guide takes you from a newly onboarded variable frequency drive (VFD) to an active factory maintenance plan, with its work orders generated and anchored to the equipment's real life. For the full picture of capabilities and benefits, see Drive Service Intelligence.

How it works (concept)

The core idea of DSI is that the drive's nameplate is monitoring, not just an administrative record. The manufacturer defines the service life of the components that wear out — the fans and the DC-bus capacitors — as a function of the drive's age. Wertek AI uses that age to compute when each service is due:

• When you capture the serial number, the platform decodes the drive's manufacture date (multi-brand via device profiles: Danfoss and ABB today).
• When you record the installation date and the last reconditioning (for example, capacitor reforming at a workshop), the calculation is re-anchored to the most reliable date available: real service > installation > manufacture. A drive that sat two years in storage doesn't carry those two years as if it had been running.
• With the correct age, the DrivePro service windows for fans and capacitors appear in the predictive zone of the drive's panel, and the factory maintenance plan can generate the matching work orders.

The result: an old drive, or one with overdue service, shows its maintenance debt from day one instead of waiting for a failure.

First 15 minutes

1. Open the drive: from Equipment → VFD, open the drive you want to bring up to date. You'll see its status and its detail panel.
2. Open the drive's nameplate section (the record with brand, model, serial number, and rated values).
3. Fill in the real lifecycle data — these are what anchor the service windows:
   • Serial number (if it didn't already come from the gateway): enables the decoded manufacture date.
   • Installation date: when it actually entered service.
   • Last service / reconditioning date (capacitor reforming or other workshop service), if applicable.
   • Part number and rated values (power kW, current A, voltage V, frequency Hz), if you have them handy.
4. Save. The service windows recalculate immediately with the correct age.

Step-by-step

1. Bind the drive to its asset (via gateway, or by registering it and scanning its QR/NFC). The VFD panel only appears when there's a drive behind the asset.
2. Complete the nameplate as in the first 15 minutes: without an anchor date (installation, or the manufacture date decoded from the serial), the factory plan cannot compute dates.
3. Activate the factory maintenance plan from the drive. In a single step, the platform seeds the manufacturer-recommended program (inspection and fan/capacitor services per DrivePro) and generates the work orders automatically. The operation is idempotent: if they already exist, it doesn't duplicate them.
   • A drive whose service is already past due appears with its work order overdue from day one. Activating the plan across the whole fleet makes the accumulated maintenance debt visible at once.
4. Declare what the drive drives (recommended): on the asset's record, Hierarchy → Connections tab, indicate which motor or equipment the drive moves. With that connection declared, what the drive detects about its load (motor over-temperature, phase loss, torque limit) is attributed to the driven equipment, and a protective trip generates the probable-cause recommendation on the motor/cable.
5. Manage the generated orders in the maintenance module — see CMMS: assign them, schedule them, and close them with evidence like any other order.
6. Complete the order once the service is performed: the cycle is re-anchored to the real service (the next window counts from the actual date, not the estimated one). If you need to reschedule or cancel a plan order, the platform allows it and logs it auditably (who, when, and why), without erasing the trail.

Common issues and fixes

• "I don't see the nameplate section / the VFD panel" — the asset has no drive bound behind it. Check that the drive is onboarded and linked to its asset (via gateway or QR/NFC registration). If the asset isn't a VFD, the section doesn't apply.
• "It won't let me activate the factory plan" — usually an anchor date is missing: enter the installation date, or the serial number so the platform can decode the manufacture date. Also check that the drive is bound to its asset. The platform explains the reason when a precondition fails.
• "The service dates don't look right" — it's almost always the nameplate: confirm the installation date and the last reconditioning date. Remember the trust order (real service > installation > manufacture); a drive stored for a long time needs its real installation date so services aren't pulled forward.
• "I re-activated the plan and I'm worried I duplicated orders" — they aren't duplicated: re-activating the plan is safe, it only creates what's missing.
• "The drives module doesn't appear" — VFD monitoring is a module that requires the Monitoring plan or higher; check your plan.

What's next

• Drive Service Intelligence — the full module picture, including provider mode.
• CMMS — how to assign, run, and close the orders the factory plan generates.
• Energy and power quality — the drive and its electrical supply on the same platform.