Variable Speed Drives: An IIoT Tool That Benefits Manufacturers

Global manufacturing today is a cut-throat game, with many challenges to be faced. Demand obviously fluctuates in accordance with prevailing socio-economic conditions, but everyone now expects higher and higher productivity and output levels, while at the same time requiring consistently high quality to be maintained. In addition, the mass customisation of goods is more commonly being looked for, and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) are having to produce machines that can support this style of supply. The manufacturing environment in the 21st century is therefore so competitive that the most successful OEMs are those who can deliver machines capable of continuous adaptation to the changing performances required by their end users.

Variable Speed Drives

Differing customer specifications require a flexible architecture capable of integrating into different systems, and of accommodating the appropriate infrastructure to assimilate the IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things). Successful OEMs must therefore be able to build machines in this way, but machines that also perform better in terms of output quality and production speed. Furthermore, such complex machinery must be in full compliance with all applicable safety regulations so as to ensure safe working conditions for the equipment and its operators.

Variable Speed Drives (VSD) have had a considerable role to play in addressing these challenges, and recent IIoT technology has enabled them to incorporate many useful enhancements. Drive technologies start and stop an electric motor in order to move the mechanical parts of a given application, and the more smoothly and quickly this can be accomplished, the more efficient is the mechanical performance. A VSD is an invaluable automation device that controls an electric motor's speed and torque output, or rotational force, by varying the input current and frequency. The improvements in recent VSDs with IIoT capabilities have altered the way in which many mechanical movement processes are managed, by introducing greatly enhanced flexibility and precision. Areas such as material working and handling, packaging, hoisting and many pumping and flow applications are greatly advantaged by VSDs, and they are so flexible in design that in many cases they are now called services oriented drives.