The U.S. and Canada lead the world in motor efficiency standards, with a major transition to IE3 premium-efficiency motors already taking place by the end of last year, notes IMS Research. This contrasts with China, which is far behind, according to analyst Wilmer Zhou.
IMS released a report recently showing that China is catching on, though, to power-saving legislation, having required suppliers to begin selling IE2 high-efficiency motors in July 2011. "We are starting to see how government directives for improved motor efficiencies will result in leveling the playing field for motor manufacturers in China," Zhou says. "While this might seem to make it harder to enter the motor market and to eliminate many low-end motor suppliers, all industries will benefit greatly from improved motor efficiency, leading to a significant reduction in energy costs, which is the prime objective of the legislation."
That statement is reinforced by results from Control Design's most recent Market Intelligence Report on motion, drives and motors, in which more than 41% of respondents indicated they primarily use high-efficiency motors and 35% said they use premium-efficiency motors.
In the same survey, among torque control, position control and speed control, almost 54% of respondents said that speed was the most important performance characteristic for drive requirements. Meanwhile, we see a modest shift toward faster update rates. Some 65% of this year’s respondents reported update rates of 99 ms or faster, compared with 59% in 2010.
Variably Easy
Eazy variable-frequency drive controls and protects 40–1875 hp ac induction motors. It has a fifth-generation IGBT power inverter, SVPWM control strategy, power losses ride trough, built-in energy meter, slip compensation, overload and ground fault protection, RS-485 Modbus-RTU communications software, and built-in encoder.
Amtech Drives
770/469-5240
www.amtechdrives.com
Max It
M-Max sensorless vector adjustable-frequency drives have a 32-bit microprocessor and IGBTs, a digital display with operating and programming keys for monitoring, adjustments and diagnostic information. They include RS-485/Modbus, a PID controller, and several mounting options.
Eaton
877/386-2273
www.eaton.com/drives
MDrive motion products are available for EtherNet/IP and have integrated motor, drive and programmable controller. They allow up to 254 nodes on a network, and Hybrid Motion Technology hardware offers the benefits of servo and stepper motors. Real-time response controls unintentional stalling, saves energy and reduces heat.
IMS Schneider Electric
860/295-6102;
www.imshome.com/mdrive_hybrid.html
Slotless Servos
XtraforsPrime ac servo motors have a slotless design in eight frame sizes, a continuous torque range to 75 Nm, and support for multiple feedback devices, and is designed for easy customization.
Infranor
978/988-9002
www.infranorusa.com/xfprime
Go Direct
RDD direct-drive, rotary servo motors minimize the need for power transmission devices and can reduce machine complexity, system compliance and energy consumption, while delivering high dynamic performance, fast settling times and better overall load control.
Rockwell Automation
414/328-2000
www.ab.com/motion/servomotors
Efficiency at a Premium
IronHorse general-purpose ac motor line includes cast iron, three-phase, premium-efficiency motors 1–200 hp in reversible speeds of 1,200, 1,800 and 3,600 rpm. Motor sizes 10 hp and lower have maintenance-free bearings; larger motors have premium-quality ball or roller bearings.
AutomationDirect
770/889-2858
www.automationdirect.com
Do the Two-Step
STR stepper drives at 4 A/phase and 8 A/phase have a built-in noise filter on STEP and DIR inputs, microstep emulation for low-resolution step signals, and anti-resonance for optimized torque and smoothness over a wide speed range. The drives are designed for basic step and direction control of a two-phase step motor.
Omega Engineering
203/359-1660
www.omega.com
Simple Servo
Junma ac servo has a plug-and-play design with no parameter settings or gain adjustments. The unit accepts a pulse reference input from the host controller or PLC. Four servo motor and amplifier sets have rated outputs 100–750 W with 100 and 200 V inputs. Servo motor feedback is provided with a 16-bit incremental encoder, providing a resolution of 65,536 pulses per revolution.
Yaskawa
800/yaskawa
www.yaskawa.com
Multi-Modes
SMVector drives for 40, 50 and 60 hp ac motor applications operate in V/Hz, Enhanced V/Hz, Vector Speed and Torque modes, and have high starting torque, auto-tuning, advanced low-speed control, and dynamic speed regulation. Advanced setup parameters include analog input configuration, deceleration override time, voltage midpoint and frequency midpoint V/Hz characteristics.
Lenze Americas
800/217-9100
www.lenzeamericas.com
Serve or Step
750-673 servo stepper controller has on-board power driver and controls two-phase stepper motors to 70 V/7.5 A in positioning, referencing, jog/inch and profile sequencing modes. It controls movement at 64 microsteps/full step, preventing step losses caused by acceleration phase resonance and excessive wear on mechanical components. Vector control combines with incremental encoder for high-efficiency rotational speed.
Wago
800/din-rail
www.wago.us
AM3000 synchronous servo motors in flange sizes 2-7 are FDA-compliant with a resistant white surface coating. Apart from the coating and stainless steel shaft, the motors do not differ from the standard AM3000 series, so additional motor types do not have to be specified for mixed use of coated and standard motors.
Beckhoff Automation
952/890-0000
www.beckhoff.com/AM3000
Accurax G5 compact servo drives with built-in EtherCat are scaled to provide nearly 25% weight reduction. Side-by-side mounting of the drives saves 50% cabinet space and delivers submicron precision and millisecond settling time. Ratings are 100, 200 and 400 Vac with power 50 W to 15 kW.
Omron Industrial Automation
866/88-omron
www.omron247.com
Simplify Spares
VLT FlexConcept unified drive consists of a helical bevel gear driven by a compact permanent magnet motor combined with an efficient inverter drive, and reduces the costs of stocking, storing and maintaining spare parts. All enclosures are designed to IP66/67 and IP69K, and DIN 1672-2 Hygienic Design standards.
Danfoss LVT Drives
800/432-6367
www.danfossdrives.com
Mix and Match Specs
With configurable options menu to build the servo motor needed, the 1FK7 family can be configured to 110,700 possible designs. Options include stall torque and RPM rating, encoder style and bit resolution, holding brake functionality, shaft style, IP rating, ac line supply and electronic nameplate recognition via Drive-Cliq.
Siemens Industry
800/879-8079
www.usa.siemens.com
Washdown Drive
Movitrac LTE NEMA Type 4X/IP66 inverter has dust-tight seals for high-pressure washdowns. Predefined parameter settings and keypad aid fast startup. It covers a 0.5–10 hp range for single-phase and three-phase power. Options include power switch, potentiometer and 32 kHz quiet switching. It can handle 150% overload for 60 s.
SEW-Eurodrive
864/661-1120
www.seweurodrive.com
HP Extended
RPM ac motors perform like high-horsepower servos with low rotor inertia and high power density in NEMA frame sizes 180, 210, 250, 280 and 440 with permanent magnet rotor construction. The motors are TEBC-rated up to 150 hp with resolver feedback. A finned, laminated 440 frame extends the horsepower range to 800 hp enclosed blower cooled and 1,200 hp with open force ventilated construction.
Baldor Electric
479/646-4711
www.baldor.com
Small Steps
ULE linear stepper motors in unipolar or bipolar configurations provide constant positioning force to 400 N over full travel lengths to 300 mm in ambient temperatures -15 to 60 °C. The 55x55 mm design envelope and NEMA 23 mounting flange enables use in space-restricted areas.
Johnson Electric
937/454-2345
www.saia-motor-usa.com
2011 catalog with Animatics and OEM Dynamics product lines features Class 5 SmartMotorT products, cables and connectors, and information to connect and use company products. The catalog explains the company’s Combitronic communication protocol for advanced motion control of group and global addressing over a CAN network. Pages include connectivity maps for cables, power supplies, motors and other accessories.
Animatics
408/748-8721
www.animatics.com
AKM8 servo motors have two standard flange/shaft combinations designed to integrate with 80-90% of machine builder needs around the globe, with windings designed to operate at 230, 400 or 480 Vac for machines in various geographic regions. They have Class F insulation for a rating of 155 °C, and provide stall torque of 75–180 Nm, operating speeds to 2,500 rpm, and power to 19.8 kW.
Kollmorgen
540/633-3545
www.kollmorgen.com
GPA dc electric motor has nominal 24 V, 750 W and 40 A characteristics. Nominal speed is 3,300 rpm in a variety of shaft configurations, with 2.2 Nm torque and 11 Nm breakaway torque. It can be installed horizontally or vertically for powering the positioning arms of mobile and stationary stacking machines.
Bosch
708/865-5286
www.boschusa.com
Range of Coordination
ServoWire motion and logic controllers (SMLC) control a drive network of highly coordinated, high-performance, multi-axis motion. When tight coordination isn’t needed, the XD-Indexer drive can be integrated into the SMLC via Modbus TCP. The total number of drives on an SMLC controller can be more than 100. The controller offers CoDeSys IEC 61131-3 programming, PLCopen motion function blocks, industrial Ethernet network solutions and FireWire-based drive networking.
Ormec Systems
585/385-3520
www.ormec.com
Drive Inside
AMP-43240 four-axis servo drive provides up to 750 W per axis and resides in a four-axis motion controller enclosure to reduce space and wiring. The servo drive has four transconductance, PWM amplifiers for driving brushless servo motors at 20–80 Vdc, each for motors operating up to 10 A continuous, 20 A peak per axis. Amp gain settings are user-programmable at 0.5, 1.0 and 2.0 A/V. The switching frequency is 24 kHz.
Galil Motion Control
800/377-6329
www.galilmc.com
Lots of Moves
ACS stepper drive/controller for electric actuators is capable of four, eight or 16 move command modes (absolute, incremental or jog), and has adjustable motion profile parameters (position, velocity, acceleration/deceleration, force) that are independently configurable for each move. The digital I/O is configurable in 24 Vdc opto-isolated, NPN or PNP; and the drive/controller is compatible with most brands of 24 Vdc stepper motors.
Tolomatic
800/328-2174
www.tolomatic.com
Downloadable Cymex servo sizing software v. 3.2.3 includes T2max values for alpha V-Drive+ and alpha V-Drive economy worm gears and motors from Omron and Fagor Automation. Current versions of the software can be updated by going to "File/Update," and the CAD Generator add-on update is also available at "File/CAD Setup."
Wittenstein
888/534-1222
www.wittenstein-us.com
VFD Has SLV
L700 industrial ac variable-frequency drives with sensorless vector (SLV) control algorithm can develop 150% torque at 0.5 Hz. EzSQ built-in programming provides the functionality of a PLC. It has micro-surge voltage suppression, advanced trip avoidance, configurable sink/source logic on digital inputs, built-in dynamic braking circuit in models to 30 hp, and built-in EMC filter in models up to 200 hp.
Hitachi America
914/524-6615
www.hitachi-america.us
High Steps
Integrated NEMA 34 stepper motor with RS-485 and CANopen serial interface and programmable motion controller obtains a step resolution of 819,200 steps/revolution. Eight I/O points can be individually configured to digital input, digital output or analog input. ActiveX/OCX driver enables interfacing to LabView, Excel, VB or other Windows programs.
JVL
513/282-0888
www.jvlusa.com
Analog on DC
SmartFan Aurora for speed control of dc motors accepts analog control signals (0–5 V, 0–10 V, 0–20 mA, potentiometer) and adjusts voltage to the motor from 0 to 100% output voltage using a buck control circuit that operates at high frequency. It operates from 12–48 Vac or 10–72 Vdc power source to control 12, 24 or 48 Vdc motors with a current rating up to 6 A.
Control Resources
978/486-4160
www.controlres.com
Step It Up
ST5-IP-EN and ST10-IP-EN dc-powered EtherNet/IP drives control NEMA 11–34 step motors, producing up to 1,200 oz-in. of dynamic torque. ST5-IP-EE and ST10-IP-EE models include an encoder feedback option that can detect and prevent motor stalls using a proprietary stall prevention algorithm. The units support more than 100 commands and 130 registers over EtherNet/IP at 100 Mbps.
Applied Motion Products
619/709-0330
www.applied-motion.com
Very Efficient
Quattro line-start, hybrid, permanent-magnet motor has a three-phase distributed stator winding and is more efficient than NEMA Premium induction motors. It operates at synchronous speed regardless of load, providing no I2R losses. It has the same frame size as an induction motor, needs no feedback device for speed control, needs no special protection relays, and provides synchronized inverter-driven multi-motor operation.
WEG Electric
800/ask-4weg
www.weg.net/us
Direct Application
ASRT IP66-rated, direct-drive, sealed rotary stage provides precise angular positioning in hostile environments. Dual large-diameter bearings control tilt-error motion (3 arc sec), moment stiffness, and repeatability (1 arc sec). Maximum rotary speeds are 100–200 rpm, and the unit uses a brushless, slotless motor, so there are no brushes to wear, no gear trains to maintain and high acceleration and high speeds.
Aerotech
412/963-7470
www.aerotech.com
UL-Certified
SD17040, SD31045 and SD17060 stepper drives are certified as UL-listed products, rated for operation in ambient range of 0–50 °C, and are self-contained with their own power supplies, and range 4.0–9.8 Arms of output current. A 230 Vac version is available from AMCI to meet European standards.
AMCI
860/585-1254
www.amci.com
All-in-One
Line of 34 frame integrated brushless servo motors with rated torques to 195 in.-oz has a closed loop with built-in driver, controller, feedback device and 110/220 Vac universal power supply. Up to 32 index motion profiles in velocity or positioning are integrated with QuickLaunch software. There are five standard models, both high speed (6,900 rpm) and high torque (3,600 rpm).
Bison Gear & Engineering
800/at-bison
www.bisongear.com
Gear Up
WX gearhead motors with all-steel helical gear trains use synthetic lubricants to produce more torque and operate in a wide temperature range. Forty-eight models provide 12 gear ratios, ranging 4:1 to 312:1, and rated output speeds 658 to 8 rpm used with type 34B, TENV, 1/5 hp (149 W) brushless dc motors.
Bodine Electric
773/478-3515
www.bodine-electric.com
