AC drives increase energy savings and reliability

Electrical switching & drive systems & components

First Quarter 2006 Electrical switching & drive systems & components

Whenever health, safety and environmental issues are important, the quality and reliability of machines and processes becomes vital. In most cases that quality and reliability will, in turn, be dependant on precise and dynamic control of AC motors.

Vacon provides AC drives for applications used in commercial building automation, pulp and paper and several other industries requiring stepless adjustment of the rotational speed of the world's most common industrial electric motor, the squirrel cage induction motor.

By controlling the motor according to the actual need, AC drives produce considerable energy savings, improving adjustability and reducing the load on the source of power as well as mechanical stress on machinery. In some installations, the investment in such a drive can pay for itself in as little as six months.

Vacon also offers regenerative drives especially developed for applications requiring regenerative braking. These drives produce practically harmonic-free energy that can be fed back into the supply, resulting in a significant increase in overall system efficiency.

The new high-performance Vacon NXP drive launched recently is designed to provide optimal control at all times, ensuring a high operational quality and availability for the entire lifespan of the system. Available up to 3 MW in voltages from 230 V to 690 V, the new drive incorporates the latest trends in functionality and options to cope with demanding automation, motion control and machine building applications.

"In developing the new NXP, Vacon wanted to create a perfect mix of user-friendliness and functionality," says Rob Hare, marketing director of CHI Control. "Their designers have left the good things unchanged and focused on providing functions and options requested by customers."

The new Vacon NXP can run both standard induction motors and permanent magnet synchronous motors in all configurations from servo to dedicated high-speed permanent magnet motors. New feedback device support has been added for absolute encoders and resolvers in addition to traditional incremental pulse encoders.

To simplify the design, cut costs and improve user safety, the new Vacon NXP has an integrated safe disable function. Certified according to EN-954-1, Category 3, this function can be used to ensure that the drive will not start, for instance, during maintenance or servicing of the machine, eliminating the need for a conventional safety switch. The safe disable function cannot be used for electrical maintenance.

For the supervision of motors in potentially explosive atmospheres, Vacon offers a cost-saving thermistor input integrated into the drive. The Vacon NXP thermistor input is compliant with ATEX 94/9/EC so that an external thermistor is no longer required.

The new drive incorporates a number of new and enhanced features. The default All-in-One application package now offers full 32-bit performance, and the NXP application package contains applications for positioning control and shaft synchronisation, and a system interface application for use in demanding drive systems.

Support for Ethernet TCP/IP communication and other services is now also available, allowing a higher degree of flexibility in system and machine integration, as when configuring and monitoring several drives at a time via the Internet.

"The fact that there is now a single product range - for motors ranging from one kilowatt to several megawatts - that can offer such a high level of functionality and intelligence, represents a major advance in the field of motor drives," Hare adds.

For more information contact Rob Hare, CHI Control, +27 (0) 11 827 9124, [email protected]

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Electrical switching & drive systems & components

AC drives increase energy savings and reliability

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