Part 1: Direct on-line start This series talks about solutions to start larger medium voltage motors. Aspects such as effectiveness, cost, impact on the supplying grid and driven load or effects on the motor design are taken into account. Article at hand describes the simplest solution: motor direct on-line start. Read more…
VFD control: An introduction In this post we introduce basic thoughts on VFD control. Some of you asked deeper questions about different motor control strategies and their benchmark. Such comparison will be subject of a separate post, resp. a dedicated motor control series. Today’s article provides a base for further Read more…
Current, voltage and power scaling of VFD Variable frequency drives (VFD) became unthinkable part of industrial motor drives. They cover voltages from some 120 V up to 13.8 kV (special designs go even higher) and power range from fraction of kW until 100 MW and beyond. Enabler of such wide Read more…
Advantages of liquid cooled drives This article deals with liquid cooling for high power variable frequency drives (VFD). What is the principle of liquid cooling? What kind of liquid can be used for cooling? What are the advantages of liquid cooled drives? Continue reading this post on advantages of liquid Read more…
VFD testing: Introduction Abstract This new series on VFD testing will guide you through various aspects of testing of variable frequency drives (VFD) and drive systems. We will discuss tests required by standards (particularly IEC), factory acceptance tests, site acceptance tests and system tests, such as full load combined test Read more…
Multidrives and their benefits Multidrive concept is a VFD solution where multiple motors are supplied and controlled from one VFD having several inverters connected to a common dc link. This concept has several advantages and is especially popular in certain applications, for instance rolling mill drives or specific test stands. Read more…
How to maximize the availability of your drive system Availability is one of the key criteria for the end users according to numerous surveys and direct feedback. Unplanned downtime is simply too expensive and shall be avoided. At the same time multiple redundancies may not be economically viable (high investment Read more…
Current source and voltage source inverter Current source and voltage source inverter are the two basic types of indirect frequency converters. Therefore, it might be very interesting to describe and compare both types. This article can also be seen as an amendment to the LCI vs VSI series [1] that Read more…
LCI versus VSI:60 MW case study Introduction In this post we share some results of a case study comparing load-commutated inverter (LCI) and voltage source inverter (VSI) for a 60 MW variable speed drive system. Due to confidentiality some quantities are only presented as relative values in percentage instead of Read more…
Dream VFD You may think that the title of this article – dream VFD – does not sound very serious. However, let us elaborate on the topic a bit. It actually is a serious question: How does your dream VFD look like? What are the features of your dream VFD? Read more…