Feature Drives & controls
However, attitudes are changing, driven partly by a desire to reduce their energy consumption and partly the need for remote interrogation. Drives play a major part in this offer- ing a series of ‘keep on running func- tions and drives designers are rising to the challenge of developing systems that can run intelligently but unat- tended for perhaps months at a time.
Integrated safety
tems. The water industry, other utili- ties, agriculture, environmental moni- toring, security and many other sectors are characterised by the fact that they often have systems that are physically remote from one another. Until a few years ago, accepted wisdom was to keep these as simple as possible.
Application possi- bilities for drives abound throughout many industries
The final trend that I would like to dis- cuss is Safety. We all like to moan about it, but the truth is that when I was starting out as an apprentice (and it wasn’t that long ago!), machinery could be dangerous to life and limb. You had to be constantly alert, be wary of any plant or machinery you went near and be ready to react if things went awry.
Physical guards and barriers improved safety, but they could com-
promise performance and take up a lot of valuable space.
Changes to the machinery directive have meant that machinery designers now have to design in more rigorous safety systems and carry out more in depth risk assessments. Inverter drives can be a key component in a machine and so the move for drive manufactur- ers to embed safety functionality into their drives has grown. This safety functionality is equally important if the machine is redesigned. Embedded safety features means it is possible to cut down on components and so reducing overall machine build costs. I have worked with drives for most of my career, and their constantly developing capabilities mean I am still enthralled and surprised by them.
Mitsubishi Electric Europe T: 01707 276100
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automationsolutions.mitsubishielectric.co.uk Making servo driven systems easier
Machine builders strive constantly to improve their competitiveness. Servo driven systems are often a significant item in their build expenditure with high costs to purchase, install and commission. The Lenze 8400 TopLine drives are claimed to reduce costs through lower purchase prices, small size, leading to reduced panel costs, and high performance that increases productivity. Programming software is simple and free which all contributes towards to reduced workload for the designer and machine builder
The 8400 TopLine servo drives have matching Lenze synchronous and asynchronous
T 24
he Lenze 8400 TopLine is a servo drive for synchronous and asyn- chronous motors that sits at the top of the 8400 frequency inverter range. As such it is based on products in volume manufacture which leads to competitive pricing in the servo drive market. Latest technol- ogy gives middle to high-end servo performance with compact dimen- sions. Synchronous and asynchronous motors can be run open-loop or, for
motors, also geared motors. To reduce procurement costs, power and feedback cables with plug connections are available. L-force Engineer software for parameterisa- tion, commissioning and diagnostics is available free of charge and also covers other drives and controllers
Lenze T: 01234 753227
www.lenze.com Enter 212
more precise control, with feedback from incremental or absolute encoders. On board is software for positioning, electrical gearbox and management of holding brakes. Safe Torque Off to Category 4, Performance Level e, is a further option whose low cost is normally justified by a reduc- tion in external safety components. With the flexibility to handle differ- ent types of motors and feedback, TopLine suits the majority of applica- tions in the power range 0.55 to 45kW, 3.0 to 89A rated current. Three typical applications that illustrate its use are palletising, food portioning and paper winding machinery.
Palletising machines require smooth positioning with medium to high dynamics. The 8400 TopLine scores highly here with 200 per cent peak torque available for three seconds and smooth ‘S’ shaped ramps for accelera- tion and deceleration.
Stop-start applications such as food portioning and paper cutting run at high
cyclic frequencies of operation. Where the requirement for precision is moder- ate, it may be possible to combine the 8400 TopLine with a standard IEC framed asynchronous motor, albeit with feedback. High precision will demand the extra expense of a synchronous servo motor and control from a higher level IPC. This in turn puts a demand on the bus communications between the drive and the controller. Here standard plug-in modules are available for the drive with either of the fast realtime buses EtherCAT or Profinet.
Paper winding machinery and other web-based applications for plastic and foil require smooth delivery of torque and medium to high accuracy on a speed setpoint. The 8400 TopLine has as standard an electrical gearbox func- tion, also known as electrical shaft. A separate axis bus links drives specifi- cally for this purpose and precise con- trol of speed, angle or torque can be achieved between the master and slave drives.
JUNE 2012 Automation
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