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Configured drive packages save time and money
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February 2008
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To help smooth out the process of specifying and ordering AC Drives and related ancillaries, Rockwell Automation has introduced a configured drives service.
The service has been designed to fulfil the needs of a wide variety of industrial applications. Field business leader for power control, Jonathan Smith, explains: “This configured drives approach allows engineers to choose a base drive package and then enhance it with numerous options in line with the needs of the end application. The beauty of this approach is that many of the option combinations offered in the configuration process are already installed in industrial applications across the world – working in harmony with each other, removing the headaches associated with a normal mix-and-match approach.”
The ‘starter package’ includes a basic configured drive, input fusing, RFI filter and enclosure. The options are then designed to add functionality or features in line with the demands of the end application. These options can include power features such as circuit breakers, isolators, input, output & bypass contactors and line reactors. Control and Communications options include: control interfaces (analogue and digital) and serial communications (DeviceNet, ControlNet, etc.). Operator Interfaces can include HMIs, door-mounted devices and meters. While motor interface options include encoders, resolvers, thermistors, RTDs, cooling blowers and space heaters.
All packages are supplied in Rittal TS8 cabinets with either IP21 or IP54 ratings, and come complete with control circuit transformer and cooling fans appropriate for the frame size. All configured drives are assembled and tested in accordance with ISO9001 and comply with EEC directives 73/23 (Low-Voltage Directive), 89/336 (Machinery Directive) and EN 61800-3 (EMC Directives). Customisable options are also offered for particularly demanding applications.
Rockwell Automation recognises that although there is still room for an off-the-shelf product offering, by providing a configured drives service it is able to more closely match the needs of many of its customers, while also giving them the confidence that all the components and options will work in harmony with each other.
The significant expertise and production resources available to Rockwell Automation mean that even the most demanding drive system specification can be met cost-effectively and efficiently. Whether off-the-shelf or configured, each Allen-Bradley drive system receives the same attention to detail and is produced to the same high standard of manufacturing, meaning that OEMs and machine builders can specify Allen-Bradley with confidence, no matter what the application.
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Author
Chris Rowlands
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