EC: U1000 industrial Matrix drive

Motion Control - Drives, servo drives: The U1000 industrial Matrix is a low harmonic drive that provides full power regeneration. This is a Control Engineering 2016 Engineers’ Choice Awards Winner.

October 15, 2015

Enjoy extremely low harmonic distortion and regeneration in a space-saving design, completely without the need for additional components. Unlike conventional drives, Yaskawa’s Matrix technology employs a system of nine bi-directional switches that are arranged in a matrix to create a variable output by switching directly from the input power and by providing direct ac to ac conversion.

This differs from conventional drives that require a dc bus for ac conversion, While conventional drives have a good displacement power factor and are compact by themselves, they provide poor input harmonics, lose significant amounts of energy via the dc bus, lack power regeneration, and require other accessories to provide clean power making the overall system very large.

The U1000 reduces input harmonics by combining active switching from the power source along with integrated input filtering. This combination results in very low current distortion of 3% to 5%, making IEEE-519 system compliance very achievable without the use of additional harmonic countermeasures. This is a significant reduction when compared to conventional ac drives that range from approximately 35% to 90%, depending on design.

Matrix technology also creates energy savings by power regeneration. Conventional drives utilize regenerative braking resistors to dissipate energy as heat, reducing energy efficiency. The U1000 allows you to return regenerative energy directly back to the power supply, increasing energy efficiency and saving money.

Matrix drives provide a highly efficient and compact solution for low harmonic distortion and/or full regeneration. Not only do Matrix drives avoid the high cost and complexity of component based systems such as multi-pulse topologies and regenerative rectifiers, but physical space savings are often 50% or more. Energy savings from regenerative applications often result in payback of less than 1 year.

Yaskawa America Inc., www.yaskawa.com