Smart AC drive range is extended with more power ratings and washdown variants

Nuernberg, Germany, November 28, 2006 --- At SPS/IPC/Drives 2006, Baldor is showing its extended H2 family of AC motor drives for adjustable speed applications - with new higher power options, washdown-duty variants, and more plug-in expansion cards. Highlights include 26 new AC motor drives that extend the upper power rating from 45 to 93 kW, a further selection of drives available in washdown-duty enclosures, and a programmable 'pulse-follower' board that allows users to link drives in sophisticated ways - including electronic gearing.

H2 drives are available in open- or closed-loop variants, supporting inverter, encoderless vector and closed-loop vector modes of motor control. There is also a range of drives for servo motor control applications up to 18.5 kW. The closed-loop variant features a fourth-generation space-vector control algorithm for fast and steady motor control as temperature and loading conditions fluctuate. This sheer choice of speed control, combined with a modular expansion bus and option range, provides optimised solutions to all adjustable speed motor drive applications, from simple speed control to advanced positioning and sophisticated movements.

H2 Industrial Drives Positioning software is included with the new drives. This supports 15 different profiles as standard, including point-to-point moves, without installing any additional hardware. The drives also incorporate a mini PLC. This allows the user to program simple tasks such as monitoring inputs and setting outputs - saving the cost of a dedicated PLC in many simple automation applications. Another novel intelligent feature is the system's real time clock, which has an alarm capability that can be programmed to set outputs or display messages at certain times and dates. This is very handy for flagging occasional maintenance events such as displaying notes to change filters, or to lubricate a motor.

The latest members of the H2 family extend the power ratings available from 45 to 93 kW, opening up applications in a number of heavier-duty machinery areas such as extruders or punch presses. Baldor is also adding a choice of units up to 7.5 kW power ratings in washdown duty enclosures, for clean area applications such as food and pharmaceutical processing. Inverter, encoderless vector and closed-loop vector models are available for single- and three-phase inputs of 230, 460 or 575 VAC.

The drives all feature an expansion bus that accepts plug-in functions including communications facilities or digital and analogue I/O cards. This allows users to configure systems for specific applications at minimal cost. Among the fieldbus networking communications options are DeviceNet and Profibus-DP, with Modbus as standard, and Ethernet TCP/IP networking. The latter option can function as an HTTP web server, allowing remote monitoring of status using a standard web browser. The card slots also allow a drive's I/O capability to be expanded economically for more sophisticated automation applications. Among a number of new choices in this area are analogue I/O cards with 16-bit resolution, and a programmable pulse follower card that allows a drive to operate in synchronisation with another drive or encoder. This latter option also includes a scalable output to another drive or control system, and the ability to change ratios on the fly to accommodate 'slips' on a web processing line.

The H2 drives continue Baldor's tradition of ease of use, with removable keypad controllers that employ the same high-level English language as Baldor's previous H family. Using the keypad, which gives access to built-in positioning software, control programs can be set up with ease. With this release of further family members, this ease-of-use feature is enhanced with the availability of Baldor's Windows-based Mint WorkBench programming environment, the same software tool used across Baldor’s range of motion controllers and servo drives. Among the sophisticated drive configuration and management features this brings is a 'software scope' tool that allows users to tune and verify the motor control profile performance without connecting an oscilloscope.

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