Drive solution designer harnesses energy, cost savings

Lenze’s drive solution designer has optimized sustainability for material handling industry.

By SOURCE: Lenze America March 29, 2011

Lenze Americas has launched a Drive Solution Designer (DSD) for the material handling industry. A software tool for design engineers, the Lenze DSD analyzes the complete drive train of an application to ensure the correct design and dimensioning of a decentralized system.

“With the long running times in material handling applications, energy use is one of the major cost factors – and one of the first places we look to reduce costs,” said Craig Dahlquist, Lenze Product Manager.

The Lenze DSD software is a comprehensive examination aimed at deriving real energy savings through the use of highly efficient motors and transmissions; achieving precisely matched speed control through the use of frequency inverters; and enabling the utilization of regenerative energy produced during motor braking.

“The intelligent and economical use of the energy in each component of the drive train translates into a reduction in total energy consumption and a swifter return on investment,” adds Dahlquist.

The energy requirements of a drive train and the individual components are calculated along with the amount of regenerative energy that can be exchanged via the DC bus or fed via a regenerative module to the supply system. Lenze DSD optimizes the energy use of each component by determining the loss/load ratio of the mechanical processes. Since drive train components work at low efficiency in partial load applications, contributing to high energy loss, the DSD works to accurately specify the precise load-dependent power requirements of the machine, in order to maximize energy savings.

Backed by extensive application libraries and process-specific calculations, the DSD guides users step-by-step through product options and benefits, offering in depth comparisons of multiple drive solutions.

www.lenzeamericas.com

Lenze Americas

– Edited by Gust Gianos, Control Engineering, www.controleng.com