Look at the V/Hz ratio of a motor, that is what the design is based upon. As long as you maintain a +-10% window of that ratio, the motor should be fine. But the difference between 50Hz and 60Hz is outside of that range, so the motor may burn up if this is not taken into consideration.
So for instance, 60Hz motors are often rated 460V/60Hz, which ia a V/Hz ratio of 7.67:1. If you then apply 50Hz, you must lower the applied voltage appropriately. 400V 50Hz is a ratio of 8:1, that is well within that 10% window. Nice how that works out huh? So the opposite is true as well, if you have a 400V 50Hz motor and you want to run it at 60Hz, you must increase the voltage to 480V and it will be fine.
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— Kilgore Trout (via Kurt Vonnegut)
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