A software memory unit is at the heart of a new concept in ac drive manufacture, distribution and installation that gives original equipment manufacturers freedom to decide how, where and when a drive should be commissioned. Snake-arm robots, when used in conjunction with industrial robots and visual servo control, could be just what the aerospace industry needs. The new VaconNXL is a powerful and compact ac drive for industrial and building automation available up to 30kW in 400V. IMS Research has investigated the global market for direct linear drives and reports that some regions prefer pre-configured systems while others buy components. Baldor’s new IEC-frame ac motors emphasise extreme operating efficiency of up to 96.3percent, to reduce operating overheads. “Servo motors don’t just run and stop when they’re told to,” says Kirk Gordon, a servo expert. Mikko Koskinen argues that a new range of ac drives – the so-called ‘machinery drives’ – is indicative of a shift in the drives market. Rino Industries’s range of manufactured bearing housings are available for a variety of different applications. Smoothness and very high performance for a wide range of brushless motor applications are available with the new MDrive17Plus Motion Control unit from IMS. Since the introduction of JVL’s integrated ac servo motor – the MAC motor – several years ago, there has been a great deal of interest in integrated stepper motors due to the numerous benefits associated with integrating the driver and controller in the motor unit. Manufacturers are introducing integrated stepper motors and drives. Alistair Rae looks at the advantages offered by this technology for machine builders and OEMs For the starting and stopping of pumps, compressors, conveyors, mixers, fans and many other fixed speed applications, soft starts offer by far the most functionally appropriate and cost effective solution. Which is why Softstart UK has introduced a packages of soft starts. Rockwell Automation is extending its range of Safe-off drives by offering the Driveguard safety system as an option on the Powerflex 700S AC drive. Designed for three-phase applications with motors rated up to 15kW, Moeller Electric’s latest DS4 range of soft starters combines the economy of two-phase control with the smoothness of acceleration normally only achieved by larger and more expensive models that use three-phase control. JVL Industri Elektronik launching another new expansion module (MACOO-FS1) for its integrated MAC AC servo motors. prev    next