November/December 2019

n TECHNOLOGY POWER DISTRIBUTION ENCLOSURES CLIMATE CONTROL Enclosures from the smallest to the largest. p Nidec ASI has announced a range of high-efficiency, transformerless medium- voltage drives that can connect directly to the grid. The drives are said to be 30% smaller and 60% lighter than those using transformers. They have active front-ends and can perform regenerative braking and power factor correction. The MV drives come with an app for monitoring their operation and scheduling maintenance remotely. www.nidec-industrial.com p Omron has announced its most powerful mobile robot to date, capable of moving bulky loads weighing up to 250kg that might otherwise need to be moved by humans using carts. The LD-250 robot can be controlled by Omron’s Fleet Manager software which can surpervise up to 100 mobile robots of varying capacities, managing their navigation, batteries and shopfloor traffic. https://industrial.omron.co.uk p The 2019 ABB Research Award, worth $300,000 over three years, has been awarded to 33-year-old Dr Ambuj Varshney from Uppsala University in Sweden for his research into ultra-low-power battery-free sensors with long-range communications. The sensors, which harvest energy from the environment, could pave the way for wide deployment of battery-free networked embedded systems. Varshney beat 60 other entrants for the award which ABB makes every three years. p Microchip Technology has developed a Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) chipset that will allow powered devices to receive up to 90W of power without changing existing PoE switches or cabling. It says that the chips will ease the transition to using IEEE 802.3bt-2018-compliant PoE injectors and midspans. Users can power any combination of IEEE and pre-standard devices by installing single- or multi-port systems between the devices and existing switches. www.microchip.com OMRON HAS announced a compact drive with “advanced” on-board motor control algorithms that, it claims, can increase drive efficiencies by up to 6% when used with asynchronous motors, and by up to 2% with permanent magnet motors, compared to conventional drives. The Q2V drive, available in ratings from 0.1–30kW, can be used with induction, permanent magnet or synchronous reluctance motors. The Q2V includes dedicated energy- saving functions for applications where the loads have variable- or reduced-torque characteristics. These functions optimise energy savings automatically, achieving energy savings claimed to be up to 50%. The drives offer V/f or sensorless vector control, with speed and torque control in open-loop applications. Special functions are included to drive pumps and fans in the most efficient way. The drive has been designed for easy commissioning. All of its inputs and outputs have screwless terminals, while EMC (electromagnetic compatibility) filters, braking transistors and STO (Safety Torque Off ) functions are built in. An “intelligent” set-up application guides users through parameter settings. The drive has a dual rating for normal- or heavy-duty operation, allowing it to be used with motors of different ratings, depending on the load characteristics. It can supply around 20% more output current when driving variable-torque applications compared to standard constant-torque systems. Users can customise the drive to their requirements using application wizards. Graphical drag-and-drop tools allow users to develop their own programs and to keep their know-how in-house. An app called Q2app is available for setting up and monitoring the drives via mobile devices. The drive is protected against dust and humidity and is designed to operate for ten years in temperatures up to 50°C, without needing any maintenance. The Q2V can track and record operating data on a local SD card, or send it to IT systems via Omron’s NX/NJ controllers. The drives are available in single-phase, 200V versions from 0.1–4kW, three-phase, 200V versions from 0.1–22kW, and three- phase, 400V versions from 0.37–30kW. Communications options include Ethernet/IP, EtherCat, Profinet and Powerlink. “With the new Q2V, manufacturers, integrators and machine-builders can guarantee a smooth installation and trouble- free operation,”says Omron’s European drive product marketing manager, Alberto Fuentes. Compact drives boost efficiencies by ‘up to 6%’ compared to others An app is available for setting up andmonitoring Omron’s newQ2V drives frommobile devices.