Eric R Snow wrote:
Just wondering. I'm not gonna try it out. No sense in it. But here it
is: Three 240 volt single phase motors are wired together in delta,
the shafts are connected together in line, and the starting windings
are disconnected. If connected to a VFD, or any three phase source for
that matter, will they spin up? Will they maybe need to be rotated at
assembly 120 degrees to each other? I think it will work. Just idle
curiosity. We all know how dangerous that is.
Thanks,
Eric

I puzzled over this one for a while. Think about it this way. The
purpose of coupling the motors with shafts is so that torque can be
transmitted from one motor to another (you can say it is to "hold" the
120 degree spacing, but really that's the same thing). If torque can be
transmitted between the motors when they are starting, it means that
each motor is able to develop torque, which we know they can't do. But
if you could "morph" the three single phase stators into one, so that
their magnetic fields interact, I believe it would work.

Chris