It has been estimated that if all motors used in pump and fan applications around the world were equipped with variable speed drives (VSDs), the global consumption of electrical energy could be reduced by 10%. There are many initiatives in place and planned that encourage or even compel designers and users of fan and pump control systems to incorporate VSDs.
For these, the already high efficiency of Vacon’s popular NX drives has been further enhanced by incorporating controlled cooling fans, and low-loss film capacitors instead of conventional electrolytic types. Overall, these improvements mean that the losses of a drive rated at 31 A are reduced by an impressive 17%.
Vacon 100 FLOW drives also offer easy integration with building management systems as well as with control systems for other flow-related applications, such as water and wastewater management. As standard, the drives are equipped with an Ethernet port that supports Ethernet IP and Profibus IO, and support for other fieldbus systems can be added with small plug-in option boards.
For smaller systems, an onboard realtime clock allows easy implementation of time-dependent functions, such as changing pressure reference values during the weekend.
Another key benefit is that Vacon Live, the supporting software, can be used to create small customised applications with just a few mouse clicks. Ten different function blocks can be combined in a number of ways to create the exact functionality needed.
During commissioning, the clear multi-language display used by Vacon 100 FLOW drives guides the user through typical application set-up wizards. And, when initial commissioning is complete, fine-tuning is made easy by the ability to display nine variables simultaneously, so that the effects of changes can be seen easily.
As might be expected, the drives offer many dedicated pump and flow control functions. These include two PI controllers for single or dual loop control of a variable such as pressure, flow or temperature; a frost protection feature for pumps; a sleep boost function that boosts pressure when a pump is about to stop due to low demand, in order to extend the time before restarting; a soft filling function for pipes; dry pump protection; and an auto-cleaning/auto-ragging feature that, if the pump appears to be jammed, carefully rotates it in reverse to remove the obstruction.
There are even special functions for applications where multiple pumps are used instead of one large pump. With the integrated Multimaster option, each of the pumps has its own VSD, and the VSDs communicate via a fieldbus link. When the capacity of the lead pump is exceeded, the remaining pumps are started and ramped up to speed as needed to meet the demand. To equalise wear on the pumps, the lead duty is automatically rotated.
Multifollower operation is also supported. With this, the lead pump again calls for assistance, as in the Multimaster configuration, but this time all of the pumps run at the same speed, in effect creating one large pump. This arrangement eliminates the need for anti-backflow valves.
If the maximum benefits are to be achieved, it is important to choose the right VSDs for these applications, and it is with this in mind that Vacon has developed its new Vacon 100 FLOW range of simple to use, high efficiency compact drives.
Drawing on almost 20 years of experience, Vacon has created its new Vacon 100 FLOW drives specifically for air or fluid handling applications – these innovative products are packed with features that minimise cost of ownership and achieve the best possible energy efficiency.
