Extended drives family needs half the space

At the Drives & Controls Show in May, Control Techniques will be unveiling extensions to its Commander SK family of AC drives, taking the top rating up to 132kW. CT claims that the compact drives occupy up to half the floorspace and volume of some other drives of a similar rating.

"This increase in the power-to-size ratio has been achieved by a radical rethink of drive design," explains product manager, Enrique Viseras, "and much of this is down to the use of composite materials in its enclosure."

The compact size will allow designers to cut cubicle space, resulting in smaller machines for OEMs and giving end-users more opportunities to retrofit drives for applications such as saving energy.

The extended family (shown above) has been designed to meet most drive needs in the range 0.25-132 kW. The drives are said to be easy to fit, set up and use. There is a choice of DIN-rail or panel mounting, with clearly marked terminals making connections easy. The most commonly used parameters are given on the front of the drive to simplify configuration and to get the drive running within minutes.

The drives provide: automatic, no-spin autotune; open-loop vector control; speed or torque control; and a variable switching frequency for quiet motor operation. Also built in are PID control, linear and S-type acceleration and deceleration ramps, DC injection braking and an EMC filter. Dynamic motor flux control is provided for energy-saving applications.

PLC functions are incorporated, avoiding the needs for separate PLCs, relays or timers in many applications. A free suite of software tools is supplied to allow advanced drive programming. The drives can be connected to most major fieldbus networks, while Ethernet communications allow global access.

Available options include: remote keypads; SmartStick memory devices for cloning drive parameters; LogicStick devices for storing PLC programmes; and serial cable for PC connections.