What does HP or horsepower rating mean?
The horsepower of the machine is the power, (or capacity to do work) of the main drive motor. This may be expressed as continuous HP rating or Peak Hp Rating. Peak Hp Rating is the workload the motor can produce for a short period of time. Continuous HP is the work the motor can deliver for a prolonged, indefinite or extended period. For a good commercial machine typical continuous power will be 3.0-4.0 HP. Anything more than this will be inefficient, redundant and require a special power supply. Typically a peak horsepower rating will be double that of the continuous rating on a given motor.
