The customer-driven drive

Over the past 10 years, manufacturers competed on price, then on power and functionality and finally – now that drives do almost everything – they are addressing their own product's complexity issues by making the drives easier to install, commission and operate. The new leader of the pack (but for how long in this dynamic market?) appears to be Control Techniques, with its latest offering the Unidrive SP (Solutions Platform). Designed as a next generation Unidrive, the SP range offers a performance increase across the board of 60 to 70% over the company's existing Unidrive products. By making the whole package easier to use and set up and by offering a plethora of option modules, Tom Alexander from Control Techniques expands by saying: "It takes Unidrive further – the choice is presented at the point of use as opposed to the point of purchase. It takes CT way beyond its competitors. The customers know best and they are not all the same." The range caters for all motor requirements, performing v/f, open- and closed-loop vector, servo and regeneration operations. It can be configured for 14 different feedback signal devices and users do not have to worry about the type of encoder they are using. It has onboard scaleable PLC processing power which allows it to work in centralised, decentralised or hybrid systems, where a PLC may be overkill or indeed is overloaded. Visually, the first obvious features are the colour-coded option modules. These game cartridge-type devices fit into one of three slots on the inside mounting face of the unit, pointing all their terminations and sockets towards the base of the unit. Once all the modules are in place all the wiring can enter the unit from the base and are kept 'tidy' with the help of an 'A' frame support which not only supplies a secure platform but also the means to earth shielded wires. A supplemental bracket is also available for additional grounding. A number of useful offering include the ability to read the rating label from the front and the incorporation of slots for terminal block markers. Both of which negate the need to remove covers or dismounting to look at the back plane. A hot pluggable Modbus RTU port on the front enables drive programming and interrogation, again without the need to remove covers or dismount the unit. A 48-volt DC input is also provided for emergency battery operation in application such as lifts and hoists. Ease of use is further extolled by the incorporation of a smart card facility. Users can use smart cards for a number of purposes including backups, fast cloning or for loading pre-defined macros or four full parameter sets. It is a feature which is supplied as standard and is eminently useful for field application engineers. Other options include a hot pluggable LED keypad for maintenance and commissioning or a back-lit LCD kepypad which offers on-line help functions, dual language and customer configuration text database facilities. Solution packages are available from the company for most major applications, which contain a CD with all the necessary software and manuals. Pointers Smart card facilities and plug in function modules make this range powerful and easy to use All programming parameters are in SI units removing the complication of 'company's own' figures and units All wiring enters through the base of the unit and is secured and grounded with special brackets