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Servodrives boost performance by up to 25%

11 December, 2012

The German drives-maker Metronix used the recent SPS/IPC/Drives show to launch a family of intelligent servodrives which, it claims, deliver good performance, yet cost 15% less than its existing ranges. The ARS 2000 SE panel- or cabinet-mounting drives come in six single- and three-phase ratings from 0.5–6kVA. They have an overcurrent capability that is four times the continuous output rating, and incorporate line and motor filters, brake choppers and braking resistors, safety functions and universal encoder interfaces.

The high peak current capability – up to twice that of many similar drives – allows the speed of moves and the throughput of machines to be increased by 17–25%. Metronix says that its tests have shown that the drives increase automation productivity by around 5–7% in typical continuous processing applications.

Safe Torque Off (STO) functional safety is integrated and certified to Cat 4/PLe – the maximum rating possible for single-axis safety in this category.

A universal encoder interface allows connections to resolvers, analogue/digital incremental encoders, and single-/multi-turn absolute encoders, such as Hiperface or EnDat. SD memory cards can be used to store firmware and operating parameters, allowing drives to be commissioned easily.

To cut costs, the drives provide only those features that most system-builders want, as revealed in a survey. The only significant features omitted are built-in power factor correction and an expansion capability that accepts plug-in modules.




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