Variable Freq Drives survey

[bertrand lapointe]

Hello to all,

I am interested in your comments about VFD.

Which brands are the best for you and why ?
Which brands are the worst for you and why ?

Which brands last the longer.
Which brands failed faster.

On what application ( s ) are you using them
What AC line voltages
What HP range
What environment

Would you suscribe to a Drive News Group ?

 

[sQuick]

Hello to all,

I am interested in your comments about VFD.

Which brands are the best for you and why ?
Which brands are the worst for you and why ?

Which brands last the longer.
Which brands failed faster.

On what application ( s ) are you using them
What AC line voltages
What HP range
What environment

Would you suscribe to a Drive News Group ?

Written as a UK based automation engineer....

Mitsubishi............................................
We always use Mitsubishi drives unless something
else is specified by the customer...Why this is I'm
not really sure. They seem to be a reliable drive and
I have only had a couple fail on me in about 10 years.
I also like there support, where u can call up and speak
to an engineer, where as some brands u call up and they
take your details and get an engineer to call you back in
half an hour (which ends up to be two days)........


Schneider/Telemechaniqe...........................................
Very good drives, but seem a lot more sensitive on back
emf on motor braking......would seem to need a long decel
time on a pushing load without a breaking resistor.


Klonker Moeller.............................................................
Only used once or twice but seem very basic.
Control panel and display was hard to get to grips with
but a handy shortcut card was slipped in a small slot on
the top of the drive...could be very handy on site when
u have no manual.

GE...................................................
Cheep and worked well, had to make several calls
to Spain to set the thing up...didn't seem to have any
'real' technical support in the UK.

ABB................................................
Have only used these on the big drives about 100-200KW.
Were a joy to use and set up. Nice screen and very informative
display. Only downside was I installed 4 of these @ 110KW
and one failed after about a month


This is just a small sample I can remember off the top
of my head. Working at UK mains voltage, about
415V AC 50Hz. Load sizes from 0.75KW - 200KW.

Would you su'''b''''scribe to a Drive News Group ?

Yes I would.


sQuick..

 

[weco]

Hello to all,

I am interested in your comments about VFD.

Which brands are the best for you and why ?

Best brand I've used a ABB and Danfoss
ABB builds a solid drive the runs in dust environments and never
fails...even in electrical storms
Danfoss builds the only drive I know of that can run multiple loads with
disconnects

I like the european idea of using ducting to channel heat from the drives
out of the building. This seems to be a concept North American manufacturers
have not caught on to.
I serves two purposes...a cooler electrical room and fewer fans to fail...

Which brands are the worst for you and why ?

Toshiba Toptric Allen bradley....
most older drives with transitor based outputs seem to fail as the power
tranistors age...IGBTS dont seem to have this problem.

Which brands last the longer.
Which brands failed faster.

see above'

On what application ( s ) are you using them
What AC line voltages up to 600 VAC
What HP range

typically small ...up to 15 HP

What environment

Dusty and concentrated in elecrtical rooms

 

[Cameron Dorrough]

Hello to all,

I am interested in your comments about VFD.

Which brands are the best for you and why ?

The best drives I've used are PDL Microdrive (www.pdl.co.nz now owned by
Schneider) and ABB's ACS-600. The PDL unit is way cheaper than the ABB and
more user-friendly, but the ABB shines on sophisticated applications (eg.
crane control) and for very long cable runs.

PDL, Danfoss and Siemens Masterdrives are the only ones I've used with
multiple loads and disconnects. Try that with a Toshiba or a Mitsubishi and
you'll be looking for a new one really fast.

Which brands are the worst for you and why ?

Aucom, Teco, Allen-Bradley... All are comparatively un-user-friendly - some
are downright diabolical.

Siemens Masterdrives are a right pain in the backside to set up, but
certainly have their uses and are great once they're going.

Which brands last the longer.

Never had a PDL fail on me (yet). We use these for aircraft re-fuelling and
you can't get a lot more critical than that.

Which brands failed faster.

Allen-Bradley and Toshiba.

On what application ( s ) are you using them
What AC line voltages

415-440VAC 50Hz. One of the ABB ones was 3.3kV

What HP range

Up to 500kW

What environment

Petroleum, water and steel milling.

Would you suscribe to a Drive News Group ?

Maybe...

Cameron

 

[Bob]

The best drives I've used are PDL Microdrive (www.pdl.co.nz now owned by
Schneider) and ABB's ACS-600. The PDL unit is way cheaper than the ABB and
more user-friendly, but the ABB shines on sophisticated applications (eg.
crane control) and for very long cable runs.

PDL, Danfoss and Siemens Masterdrives are the only ones I've used with
multiple loads and disconnects. Try that with a Toshiba or a Mitsubishi and
you'll be looking for a new one really fast.


Aucom, Teco, Allen-Bradley... All are comparatively un-user-friendly - some
are downright diabolical.

Siemens Masterdrives are a right pain in the backside to set up, but
certainly have their uses and are great once they're going.


Never had a PDL fail on me (yet). We use these for aircraft re-fuelling and
you can't get a lot more critical than that.


Allen-Bradley and Toshiba.


415-440VAC 50Hz. One of the ABB ones was 3.3kV


Up to 500kW


Petroleum, water and steel milling.


Maybe...

Cameron

Just a side note, the PDL drives are brand-labeled by Motortronics in
the US. Great drives IMHO as well.

 

[Steve Cothran]

I love to come down in the morning and have my coffee and usenet fix
reading something like this THE DAY AFTER I have installed 16
Allen-Bradley Powerflex units in a new project.

<sigh> It was the customer's spec, not mine.......

 

[cupra]

Hello to all,

I am interested in your comments about VFD.

Which brands are the best for you and why ?
Which brands are the worst for you and why ?

Which brands last the longer.
Which brands failed faster.

On what application ( s ) are you using them
What AC line voltages
What HP range
What environment

Would you suscribe to a Drive News Group ?

To add to this, I'd be interested if anyone has had any experience with SEW-Eurodrive inverters and servos?

 

[Cameron Dorrough]

To add to this, I'd be interested if anyone has had any experience with
SEW-Eurodrive inverters and servos?

I have used the SEW Movitrac 31C inverters on two separate projects (sorry,
I missed them from my earlier post). One was a crane application (hoist and
long-travel drives) and the other was a parts hoist. My only comment on
these drives is that you get what you pay for.

They have an amazing range of settings to suit every concievable
application, but, basically they are cheap crap. Once you get them going
(barring and surges or spikes which might destroy the cheap-n-nasty output
transistors they use) they seem to work okay... or at least long enough to
get the project handed over to the client ;-)

I have never used the SEW servos, but I don't imagine they are much
different. Again, you get what you pay for.

HTH,
Cameron