Industrial Engineer · phase 9 of 16 · noun
Overload Rating
Permitted output current above the continuous rating for a stated magnitude, duration, and duty cycle.
The Explain card
- Plain English
- The overload rating says how far above continuous current the drive can go, for how long, and how often. A typical constant torque rating allows 150 percent for 60 seconds, and some drives add a short 180 or 200 percent peak.
- Example
- A crusher jams and the motor demands 140 percent for twenty seconds. A drive with a 150 percent for one minute rating rides through it and trips only if the jam lasts.
- Why it matters
- The overload is what starts stuck loads and survives brief jams, and it is used up by heat, so two overloads back to back get less than one. Sizing without knowing the duty cycle is guessing.
- Hook
- How hard you can push, and for how long.
Word knowledge
How the word is built, where it came from, and what it sits beside in memory.
In a sentence
The commissioning engineer checked the drive's overload rating before testing the loaded conveyor through its acceleration cycle.
Why these words
- overload English over, above or excessive, plus load, a burden identifies the operating condition being classified
- rating English rate plus the noun-forming suffix -ing marks the value as an assigned equipment specification
Where it came from
- Origin
- an English technical phrase combining overload with rating
- Entered the language
- 20th century
- What changed
- overload moved from excessive physical burden into electrical and mechanical engineering, while rating developed a technical sense for an assigned equipment limit
How it is spelled
- Pattern
- overload is written as a closed compound with over-
- Pattern
- rating retains the silent final e of rate before adding -ing by dropping the e
Spelled like
- overcurrent
- overvoltage
- dating
- gating
Broken into chunks
-
over
- overcurrent
- overvoltage
-
load
- loaded
- unload
-
rate
- rated
- derate
What it sits beside
Same subject
- continuous current rating
- current limit
- motor nameplate current
- drive derating
Same shape
- current rating
- voltage rating
- power rating
drive nameplate ratings
- input voltage rating
- output current rating
- power rating
over- electrical terms
- overcurrent
- overvoltage
- overtemperature
Where it sits in the deck
Phase 9: VFD Ratings, Sizing, and Motor Data
Nameplate arithmetic, where the currents, voltages and duty ratings decide whether a drive can actually run the motor you bolted it to.
