2012 POY Finalists: Electric Motors and Drives

Finalists in the Electric Motors and Drives category for the Plant Engineering 2012 Product of the Year competition.

By Brittany Merchut November 19, 2012

Tapered roller bearings

Baldor’s Dodge Type EXL tapered roller bearing provide misalignment and expansion capability, while maintaining industry standard Type E mounting dimensions. The design of the Dodge Type EXL incorporates a cartridge-style inner unit into a split ductile iron housing, which allows the inner unit to swivel freely in the hosing. The Dodge Type EXL offers new bearing design with a 13% to 14% increase in load ratings. The roller bearings come in two- and four-bolt pillow blocks and utilize the same inner unit for expansion and non-expansion housings.

Baldor Electric Co.


Adjustable frequency drives

Eaton’s H-Max Series adjustable frequency drives are equipped with HVAC software and hardware features, including an industry-leading energy control algorithm. The H-Max Series has new technologies such as advanced dc capacitors and latest generation insulated gate bipolar transistors, with real-time clock and calendar. This gives customers the ability to design and operate efficient HVAC systems. The drives are available in 1.5 hp to 250 hp at 480 V and ¾ hp to 125 hp at 230 V. The H-Max Series comes with Ethernet, Modbus, N2, and BACnet built-ins.

Eaton Corporation


Soft starter solutions

The S811+/S801+ Soft Starters provide smooth acceleration and deceleration of the load with advanced monitoring, protection, and communication. The soft starters are designed for constant torque and variable torque applications. The soft starters come equipped with power and power factor monitoring capabilities, analog input, fault warnings, and integrated Modbus RTU communication. With the digital interface, users can configure, monitor, and enable protection. The soft starters are available in open and packaged control configurations with five frame sizes for current ranges from 11 A to 1,000 A.

Eaton Corporation


Bearing protection rings

The Split uKIT version of the AEGIS SGR Bearing Protection Ring protects the bearings of VFD-driven motors from electrical damage, and allows for quick and easy retrofitting of the ring on virtually any ac motor shaft without decoupling attached equipment. The AEGIS Split uKIT is ideal for HVAC service contractors and plant maintenance departments. Designed to accommodate slingers, shaft shoulders, and other end bell protrusions, the kit comes with a split AEGIS ring, the halves of which are held together with a unique hinge. This hinge design allows the split AEGIS ring to be opened on one side, then closed and fastened together with built-in adhesive-backed aluminum tabs, providing rigidity to the assembled ring.

Electro Static Technology Inc.


Line of actuators

The Tritex II dc powered line of actuators integrates power and control electronics with brushless servo motors and actuators in one package. The actuators combine electric power with advanced thermal management modeling and maximize power in smaller packages without sacrificing performance. The Tritex II DC offers continuous forces of 1,000 lbs and 1,300 lbs peak and speeds reaching 33 in./sec. The actuators have a wide range of I/O capabilities including digital I/O, analog I/O, and communication buses including Ethernet/IP, Modbus TCP, and PROFINET IO. With a wide range of applications including demanding environments, the actuators provide motion control in linear and rotary applications.  

Exlar

 


3 hp and 5 hp motors

NovaTorque’s Gen2.0 PremiumPlus+ Electronically Communtated Permanent Magnet (ECPM) Motors are packaged in standard NEMA frame sizes and mounting dimensions for easy substitution. The motors are driven by variable frequency drives and boast motor-only rated point efficiencies of 93% and 92% for 3 hp and 5 hp versions. NovaTorque motors are available in the mounting frame size typical for induction motors in addition to one frame size smaller. The motors are compatible with readily available frequency drives from many leading manufacturers. 

NovaTorque


EtherNet/IP enabled servo drive

The Allen-Bradley Kinetix 350 single-axis servo drive offers a cost-effective entry in the Rockwell Automation Integrated Architecture system. This system scales from 200 to 10,000 I/Os, allowing machine builders portability to migrate existing machine designs into new, higher-end machine designs. The drive comes equipped with safe, torque off functionality allowing for tasks such as machine setup, cleaning, removal of jams, and other maintenance tasks. The Kinetix 350 servo drive has 400 W to 3 kW of power range to meet global machine requirements.

Rockwell Automation


Base drive solution

The SINAMICS DC Master Base Drive is a prewired solution that comes with all the necessary components mounted onto a back panel. The drives are designed for end users and third parties such as system integrators and Siemens solution partners. Features of the SINAMICS DC Base Master Drive include input fuses, output dc fuses, control transformer, ac line contractors, PROFIBUS, BOP20, UL508A certifications, and 65kA SCCR rating. The new drives offer more power per panel in the same footprint compared to the previous two generations.

Siemens


Base drive panels expansion

The SINAMICS S120 drive system’s expansion includes PROFINET, Ethernet TCP/IP, and EtherNet/IP connectivity allowing for industrial Ethernet communication while offering innovative concepts for users wanting a single network for an entire plant. PROFIBUS DP and PROFINET are supported by the SINAMICS S120 drives to ensure seamless communications between all the components involved in an automation solution. The drives are designed to handle any drive requirement and facilitate vector, serve, and variable-frequency drive application with single or multi-axis offerings.

Siemens


CNC operator panel

The SINUMERIK OP 019 is a CNC operator panel with advanced technology that enables seamless design integration to the SINUMERIK Operate graphical user interface. The design features a touchscreen operation including the new Power Control Unit 50.5 allowing high-speed key actuation. The OP 019 also features wide LEDs, which allow the user to clearly visualize every key actuation. The OP 019 panels provide basic machine display with three or four channels showing up to 13 axes.

Siemens