What's the Best Replacement Drive?

Yaskawa.........some of their drives are tested to 400,000MTB and they are built with the usual Japanese obsession for quality.

I'm sure you can get many opinions on which drive people like, I'll give you a few observations having worked with several of the drives you are considering. It would also be worthwhile to know wether you have a communication method picked out or are going to decide that after picking the drives.

1. AB PowerFlex is a good drive, it can be implemented very easily if you are using a ConrtrolLogix or CompactLogix PLC and go with ControlNet or EtherNet. One handy feature is the drive parameter set can be saved as part of the PLC program so one file could backup your PLC and all your drive programming.

2. 890's are good drives and have the benefit of being able to use them in a common bus set-up which could be very handy if you have an over-hauling load situation such as a tension stand or uncoiler. With the 890 you can talk to one drive via almost any comms platform and then go firewire between the drives.

3. I have only done one job with these and they were initially going to be used in servo mode which is why they were picked. The customer then changed his mind on motors and we used them in vector mode. Not too familiar with how well they can be networked together.

4. Good drives but don't see them networked together very much, used a lot in the HVAC industry.

5. Just doing my first Siemens S120 project now so can't comment on how good the drives are but they are a little "fussy" in that there is a fair bit of add-on items required to complete the system. They can also come with a common bus front end like the 890's.

6. Square D - haven't used these so can't really comment.

Just a note, S120's and 890's can be bought with common front ends but all the drives can be wired in a common bus just each drive still has it's own front end and some requirements have to be followed to do it.

Shawn

Shawn:

Thanks for the response. In answer to your communication question, we would prefer a fiber optic option for noise immunity.

I personally would prefer a deterministic communication system. By deterministic I mean that the communication is scheduled a guaranteed to be delivered and received at a specific rate.

My current system had problems with the "collision based" communication system. It would simply lose command messages. I have currently fixed that problem with handshaking; but that doubles the network traffic and I would like to avoid it if possible.

Your thoughts on communcation would also be appreciated.

Greg

Hi Greg,

They only fiber option I can think of off the top of my head is SERCOS which I don't think any of the drives listed will have. Its usually only motion type drives and is not really necessary for a web handling machine. Your choice of drive will somewhat dictate your communication. Siemens S120's will be ProfiBus, AB will be EtherNet or ControlNet, they may have DeviceNet but that probably would be too slow. SSD can do all 3 plus some others. Noise should not really be much of an issue for a properly designed and implemented network. Unless your line is a much larger machine then I'm imagining ProfiBus, ControlNet, EtherNet, etc. will all work well. Unless you have more then say 20 drives I would not see a problem with any of these. Hope this helps.

Shawn

Shawn:

Again thanks for the input.

I have 80 drives on my machine and 53 on the sister machine. My current communication system is problematic and I beleive that it is due to the high number of nodes on the network. I know that AB will have to use multiple CNB cards to provide the necessary speed. I assume that Siemens would have a similar issue also.

Because my current layout is poor, I have many noise related issues in communication. Proper spacing was not provided for the communication cables to keep them away from the power runs and drives. I am hoping to fix those issues in the retrofit. I assume from your comment that if I address those types of issues I should not have to worry about communication noise.

Thanks,

Greg

Hi Greg,

Need a systems integrator? That is a lot of drives and you will probably need multiple loops depending on which communications method you choose. Also how the drives are set up and how much information you are trying to send back and forth will all have an effect.

Following good wiring and spacing practices should give you a communication network without noise issues. Just remember to use good quality cables, terminate and shield appropriately, and minimize any parrallel runs with high voltage wiring.

Shawn

Yes, I am taking bids on integrating this project; however we will be doing it peice-meal over 2-5 years. If you are still interested and want to contact me, send me your contact info to gdjones@bemis.com.

Greg

We've been selling Danfoss Drives amd Soft Starts for years to some very demanding customers. ..absolutely no installation or start-up problems. Danfoss has been manufactring Drives for 40 years. They're available for every HP from the 1/4 Micro to the 1350 HP AQUA...Voltages from 200 to 600 VAC...every Enclosure Rating and Frame Size. Good luck in your quest!