VFD drive rec?

[posted and mailed]

snipped-for-privacy@soleburymountain.com (T.Inoue) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com:

I like the Teco-Westinghouse units. Simple to program. Hitachi's are good too, little tougher to program. I like the folks at Dealer's Electric.

My .02 Marty

I have two Teco units and they work fine. I have a 1HP unit on my surface grinder and a 2HP unit on my rockwell lathe. I bought both from Dealers electric and the support has been fine too.

I don't have any experience with others such as Hatachi, but I chose the Teco over the Hatachi because I thought teco had a better enclosure. Not sure this is really the case though. I also found it easy to order them from dealers electric.

chuck

I have had an Hitachi SJ100 on my 13x36 lathe for about 3 years. It works very well. The sensorless vector feature means that you will almost never have to change the mechanical drive ratio between your motor and spindle. It has a host of features that you will never use in a manual machine application as it is really aimed at industrial/remote control applications. That is the main reason it is expensive.

Automation Direct sells the Hitachi line and they also sell their house brand called the GS series. I have had a GS2 on my Bridgeport for 2 years and it works very well also. The GS line is not sensorless vector, has fewer features and a less robust enclosure than the Hitachi and sells for less.

You can see full specs and the instruction manuals for both drive lines at www.automationdirect . They are easy to deal with and have very good tech support. I have no connection with them other than being a satisfied customer.

Randy

The difference is in the features.

Glancing at the FM50 and FM100 spec sheets at

I noticed that the FM50 is goes up to 120 Hertz and the FM100 goes up to 400 Hertz. Also the FM100 has programmable digital inputs and outputs, etc.

The bottom line is you don't want to run your motor much over 60 Hertz anyway unless you know its maximum rated RPM or you don't care if the armature flies apart. Also for your application digital I/O is a waste. I would get the simplest model.

Spending money on sensorless vector might be worth considering for your application, though, because you get a much wider speed range without loosing torque at the low end.

If you use more than one motor with the same drive, make sure the drive cannot be disconnected from the motor while the motor is running. This is bad for your drive the way missing a shift while drag racing is bad for your car engine.