Feature sponsored by Test & measurement
1972, KEB has grown to become a global operation employing some 1,500 people, of which 150 are development engineers. KEB’s motor, gear and automation systems provide the drive capability in thousands of installations worldwide, supporting applications such as plastics manufacturing and woodworking machinery. They are also found in industrial products such as conveyor belts and wind turbines.
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The design, testing and verification of power electronics systems is a fundamental activity of the KEB research and development team. The success of the company results from the continual adoption of new technologies, ensuring that its products and solutions maintain worldclass performance characteristics: high efficiency, reliability, and sophisticated user controls. For the engineering teams which design KEB’s inverters and power converters, development at the leading edge of technology asks new questions of the test instruments used to perform power analysis of motor and drive products.
BACKGROUND
Under the framework of the Ecodesign Directive, the European Union is introducing tough new regulations governing the energy efficiency of drives and automation equipment, at the same time as imposing new requirements for the maintenance and repair of electronics systems, consistent with the EU’s support for the concept of the circular economy.
One of the important ways for motor drive manufacturers to refine the design of their power electronics systems is to increase switching frequency. Faster switching offers an important advantage in motor drives: it enables the use of smaller capacitors and magnetic components, saving both space and weight. But faster switching creates new problems for power electronics system designers to solve. In particular, it becomes harder to measure accurately and in high resolution the key power parameters of voltage and current, because of higher levels of common-mode noise. Yet very accurate power measurements are required if motor drive manufacturers are to fine-tune their systems and maximise the efficiency of their designs.
THE CHALLENGE
An important focus for KEB’s development effort is the frequency converter, a crucial component in the next generation of demand-controlled variable speed drives. The speed control in a variable speed drive enables users to achieve substantial power savings, reducing the power input when driving less than the maximum rated load. The development of new frequency
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EB Automation, based in Barntrup in Germany’s North Rhine- Westphalia region, manufactures motors, motor drives, control and safety systems, and industrial automation solutions. Founded in
BUILDING HIGHER EFFICIENCY MOTOR DRIVES
German automation and motion control specialist KEB Automation is using Yokogawa’s WT5000 Precision Power analyser to develop the latest generation of frequency converters for variable speed drives, ensuring they meet the latest EU energy efficiency regulations.
February 2023 Instrumentation Monthly
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