Hello to all,
I am interested in your comments about VFD.
Which brands are the best for you and why ? Which brands are the worst for you and why ?
Which brands last the longer. Which brands failed faster.
On what application ( s ) are you using them What AC line voltages What HP range What environment
Would you suscribe to a Drive News Group ?
Written as a UK based automation engineer....
Mitsubishi............................................ We always use Mitsubishi drives unless something else is specified by the customer...Why this is I'm not really sure. They seem to be a reliable drive and I have only had a couple fail on me in about 10 years. I also like there support, where u can call up and speak to an engineer, where as some brands u call up and they take your details and get an engineer to call you back in half an hour (which ends up to be two days)........
Schneider/Telemechaniqe........................................... Very good drives, but seem a lot more sensitive on back emf on motor braking......would seem to need a long decel time on a pushing load without a breaking resistor.
Klonker Moeller............................................................. Only used once or twice but seem very basic. Control panel and display was hard to get to grips with but a handy shortcut card was slipped in a small slot on the top of the drive...could be very handy on site when u have no manual.
GE................................................... Cheep and worked well, had to make several calls to Spain to set the thing up...didn't seem to have any 'real' technical support in the UK.
ABB................................................ Have only used these on the big drives about 100-200KW. Were a joy to use and set up. Nice screen and very informative display. Only downside was I installed 4 of these @ 110KW and one failed after about a month
This is just a small sample I can remember off the top of my head. Working at UK mains voltage, about
415V AC 50Hz. Load sizes from 0.75KW - 200KW.Yes I would.
sQuick..
Best brand I've used a ABB and Danfoss ABB builds a solid drive the runs in dust environments and never fails...even in electrical storms Danfoss builds the only drive I know of that can run multiple loads with disconnects
I like the european idea of using ducting to channel heat from the drives out of the building. This seems to be a concept North American manufacturers have not caught on to. I serves two purposes...a cooler electrical room and fewer fans to fail...
Toshiba Toptric Allen bradley.... most older drives with transitor based outputs seem to fail as the power tranistors age...IGBTS dont seem to have this problem.
see above'
up to 600 VAC
typically small ...up to 15 HP
Dusty and concentrated in elecrtical rooms
yes
The best drives I've used are PDL Microdrive
PDL, Danfoss and Siemens Masterdrives are the only ones I've used with multiple loads and disconnects. Try that with a Toshiba or a Mitsubishi and you'll be looking for a new one really fast.
Aucom, Teco, Allen-Bradley... All are comparatively un-user-friendly - some are downright diabolical.
Siemens Masterdrives are a right pain in the backside to set up, but certainly have their uses and are great once they're going.
Never had a PDL fail on me (yet). We use these for aircraft re-fuelling and you can't get a lot more critical than that.
Allen-Bradley and Toshiba.
415-440VAC 50Hz. One of the ABB ones was 3.3kV
Up to 500kW
Petroleum, water and steel milling.
Maybe...
Cameron:-)
Just a side note, the PDL drives are brand-labeled by Motortronics in the US. Great drives IMHO as well.
I love to come down in the morning and have my coffee and usenet fix reading something like this THE DAY AFTER I have installed 16 Allen-Bradley Powerflex units in a new project.
It was the customer's spec, not mine.......
To add to this, I'd be interested if anyone has had any experience with = SEW-Eurodrive inverters and servos?
--=20 cupra (remove nospam please to mail)
I have used the SEW Movitrac 31C inverters on two separate projects (sorry, I missed them from my earlier post). One was a crane application (hoist and long-travel drives) and the other was a parts hoist. My only comment on these drives is that you get what you pay for.
They have an amazing range of settings to suit every concievable application, but, basically they are cheap crap. Once you get them going (barring and surges or spikes which might destroy the cheap-n-nasty output transistors they use) they seem to work okay... or at least long enough to get the project handed over to the client ;-)
I have never used the SEW servos, but I don't imagine they are much different. Again, you get what you pay for.
HTH, Cameron:-)
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