As variable frequency becomes a larger requirement in systems, variable frequency drives (VFD) are becoming very common in the industrial control market. On smaller systems and lower power range systems, the VFD may be too powerful for the application. A complex high feature drive can cause long installation processes and cumbersome commissioning, as these drives typically have a broad number of parameters. Many applications are basic—simple fans, small motors, conveyors, or pumps. Fortunately, you can reduce drive complexity for simple applications that do not require advanced parameter settings and achieve basic and simple installation and commissioning.
Your Siemens G120 or G120C AC drive is installed and running. Now the thought hits you as to how to back up the configuration in case of a failure in the future. Siemens offers several options for you, including a software tool, operator panels, and memory cards.
Topics: Siemens, Safety Devices & Software, Drives
Over the past years, manufacturing processes have increased in complexity and the move toward modularity of machines has caused the safety functions to move away from the classical centralized safety designs (for example, deactivation of the complete machine using a main switch) and into the machine control system and/or the integrated AC drives.
Topics: Machine Safety, Safety, Drives
Energy Savings and Reducing Operating Costs with AC Drives
Posted by Dave Gazda on Jun 15, 2015 9:13:00 AM
There has been quite a bit publicized on saving energy with AC Drives. This article will serve to set the facts straight and provide practical real-world application estimates on what a user can realistically expect to get in return for their AC drive investment.
Topics: Siemens, Energy Savings, Drives
As drive technology continues to advance, drive features are constantly being added by the manufacturers to both the hardware and software designs. Along with these advancements comes new terminology to describe or promote these advancements. This article defines a few of the terms that have come about in recent years and help improve the understanding of AC drives.
Topics: Drives