[mactec54]

This is assuming he runs it at full current though. The VFD only knows about the motor what you tell it. A motor with identical reactance can be 500W or 500kW. There is no way for it to tell itself to go harder than it's own rating.

Honestly, I'd really just like to understand how the VFD will damage itself. The VFD is doing the work of managing the phase outputs.

The usual drive failure cases are from overvoltage due to back driving the motor beyond the drive ability to handle, modifying drive parameters to operate out of it's hardware limits (which is bad design on the drive software, but I'd totally buy that being a real issue), and/or faulty control by the VFD. Other than the backdriving case, there are almost no cases where motors will damage a drive that is operating under control.

Power ratings and current ratings on these devices are semi-arbitrary and not intrinsic. The case for an overrated motor damaging a drive just makes no sense to me, please help me understand.

Keep dreaming it does not work like that and of all people you should know better, what happens when the motor is stalled which will happen, the result will be smoke I guarantee

There have been many failures on here just reading post like this, put your name to it, they will fail if they listen / read take your advice