Improving drive reliability in harsh environments
As a result of extreme conditions, Cleveland Electrical Co, a platinum distributor and stockist for TEC Electric Motors, found it was replacing two variable speed drives every six months at its customer European Metal Recycling’s (EMR) Liverpool site.
The drives were controlling the speed of motors powering cyclone fans, which were extracting metal dust from the atmosphere after vehicle parts were crushed and transported on a conveyor system. It was a challenging environment, even inside the panel where the VSDs were mounted, that was taking its toll.
In addition to the problems caused by the airborne particles, the VSDs were experiencing periodic nuisance trips due to low voltage dips caused by the power demand of the crusher’s motors.
When the cyclone fans were not operating, the crushing and transport operations had to stop due to the contamination of metal particles in the air.
It was becoming increasingly difficult to find replacements for, or repair the original VSDs, so Mike Bamford from Cleveland Electrical contacted TEC Motors to see if the company could offer a solution.
The team at TEC proposed using its TDI350 inverter fitted with input chokes to reduce the supply current harmonics. The TDI350 is an IP 20 VSD rated for high and low torque applications and has inbuilt serial communication, dual 4-20ma and 0-10V input. The drive is made for harsh environments, which makes it ideal for the application.
The 355KW inverters were also available ex-stock, minimising the project lead time, with the time taken to install and configure the new devices also kept to a minimum.
Mike Bamford of Cleveland Electrical Co explained: “We had the fans up and running within one day of TEC supplying its TDI350 inverters. Once installed on site, they were programmed and commissioned by drive technicians from TEC Motors. As a result, downtime for EMR was kept to a minimum.”
MULTIPLE OPTIONS
The TDI350 range of inverters offers a range of functions that allow TEC to meet customer requests. With the option to change input cards, various communication options are available, including PROFINET, PROFIBUS, Industrial Ethernet, Ethercat, Modbus, CANopen, and closed-loop vector control. Thanks to dedicated software, the TDI range can be directly connected to a laptop or computer station, offering monitoring, programming, fault reports and the simulation of various applications.
The replacement VSDs have been running without fault for over eight months – longer than the typical mean time between failure for the models they replaced.
Mike continued: “During the eight months since installation, the drives have been continually monitored without any reasons for concern. We will continue to monitor the drives over the next three to four months to see a 12-month result.
“The drives seem to be ideally suited to the harsh environment on our customer’s site, and we would not hesitate to install the TEC TDI350 drive on future installations.”
