Compact sensorless AC drive

Parker Hannifin has launched a new family of revolutionary AC drives that allow energy efficient permanent magnet motors to be used in a wide range of pump, fan and compressor applications. Designated the AC650S Series, the new drives eliminate the need to run permanent magnet motors with closed loop speed sensors, enabling them to be used as replacements for induction motors.

Using the AC650S drives to switch from induction to permanent magnet motors can cut energy consumption by up to 12 percent, the company says.

To date, permanent magnet motors have not been widely used in many industrial applications as they require additional speed or position sensing mechanisms and control by high end drive units, making them relatively costly and complicated to install. As a result, even though they are less efficient and considerably larger in size, induction motors have generally been the preferred choice for design and production engineers.

Now, however, by using innovative algorithm control based on motor voltage and current output, the new AC650S drive enables standard permanent magnet motors to be used in closed loop applications, without the need for additional sensors. They provide high start-up torque, without the need for additional tuning, have front panel mounted LCD and input controls, with simple diagnostics, integrated EMC filters and analogue and digital I/O, including RS232 programming ports. The new drive can also be supplied with optional Profibus-DP and Modbus RTU interfaces, while a cloning module is available to enable up to ten drive configurations to be stored for ease of maintenance.
www.parker.com