Perferred Inverters.

[OkiePC]

I have seen this topic twice and each time I read "Perverted Investors".

Is it just me??

It's FRIDAY and I am in an airport ready to go home so maybe that has something to do with it.

OG

Maybe it's the seagrams, or perhaps the OP mis-spelling to give da' credit, but I laughed so hard my kids came running in here...

Thanks, Operaghost...

 

[gappvembe]

I got in a powerflex today. It is a perfect replacement for the MD60.
I'm still shocked.
What's odd is, is that it looks like you can buy the MD60 directly from the rockwell site.
Anyway thanks for the recommendations OkiePC.

 

[thiem]

In your first post when you said that Baldor had bought out Reliance, I was surprised, because I thought that Rockwell Automation had bought Reliance many years ago and had brought both companies PLC groups together to develop ControlLogix.

Maybe Baldor only bought the motor manufacturing portion, and Rockwell got the Reliance drives piece?

I agree with OkiePC. I did a quick google on the matter and Rockwell did purchase all of Reliance (1994). Then in 2007 it looks like Baldor purchased the Power Systems division from Rockwell, which was Dodge bearings and Reliance Electric Motors.

I just wanted to verify this because I also agree with OkiePC that ControlLogix was probably developed from the AutoMax.

 

[MikeVT]

I am a little surprised not to see an mention of Mitsubishi. I work for an electrical contractor, and we see/service many brands. We have found Mitsi drives to be priced very well, to be very reliable, and to be very versatile and capable.

 

[Archie]

Has anyone used the Danfoss drives much? I installed some 10HP drives 8 years ago on a batch mixer and they very typically output 15HP for several minutes every batch. They are still running to this day without a second's problem.


I also like the Siemens Micromaster 440 because they will run on single phase as well as 3 phase input. Makes a great phase converter if you have a 3 phase motor, but only have single phase power.

 

[OZEE]

Well, the OP's original question seems to have been answered as he's made his purchase. But the discussion continues...

More important than the question of brand preference is brand support. What brands are supported well in your area?

That's the problem with Mitsubishi and Danfoss. They are great drives, but they lack widely available support. When you have problems in a production environment, you need quick answers. When those answers require more than a phone call, you don't want to have to wait a couple of days for someone to fly or drive in.

 

[nettogrisen]

Schneiders Altivar 61 and 71 are very easy to set up and support all of the fieldbusses that I have used yet, and as always Schneider support is excellent.

Omron E series are nice too, but not as user friendly, same with Danfoss.

I have not tried Powerflex yet, but I'd like to as a Rockwell rep. once showed me how easy they are to set up directly from logix 5k.

Siemens... not so much....

 

[ToolGuyFred]

I am a little surprised not to see an mention of Mitsubishi. I work for an electrical contractor, and we see/service many brands. We have found Mitsi drives to be priced very well, to be very reliable, and to be very versatile and capable.

I briefly worked for Mitsubishi Electric some years ago. The guy who did drive repairs told me the only failures he ever saw were either due to connecting mains power to the output terminals or water ingress into the drive.

Nothing ever seemed to fail when used as directed.

 

[tacm]

I also really like the 160 series drives, although rumor has it they will be going away in the not too distant future. The 160 series drives have incoming power on top and outputs and control wiring on the bottom, making them a good replacement for contactors that feed through in a similar manner, often without having to replace power and motor wiring.

Take a look at the powerflex 4M same wiring configuration AND they can be zero stacked with no space between the drives to save panel space

 

[tacm]

Has anyone used the Danfoss drives much? I installed some 10HP drives 8 years ago on a batch mixer and they very typically output 15HP for several minutes every batch. They are still running to this day without a second's problem.

Everyone has a preference, but the only thing a Danfoss drive is good for is as a target for my .357

 

[504bloke]

Everyone has a preference, but the only thing a Danfoss drive is good for is as a target for my .357

And the only thing a siemens drive is good for is target practice for a 12 bore

 

[ctilley]

I use mainly Emerson Control Techniques and TB Woods. I like the Control Techniques better. I do have to say that their tech support
group really has it together. I have never called them and not got the answer I was looking for over the phone.

 

[Jeev]

Most drive technology seems to be headed in the same direction these days anyway. Drives are as easy to use as each other and the majority of them offer the same functionality, albeit at greatly differing prices.

I pretty much use what the customer specs, but most of the time for me it's AB PowerFlex, Moeller DF51 (or similar), or SEW MoviDrive/MoviTrac.

 

[wirepuller134]

Most of our equipment came with Danfoss drives. The larger drives running the production lines are right at 10 years old. The smaller drives, 3 horse and below were very problematic, and have been changed out to powerflex drives. The powerflex line is a lot more user friendly to our reading challenged maintenance department, and a lot more budget friendly when our sanitation department decides to wash one.

 

[Jeev]

Has anyone used any of the new Bonfiglioli drives? I had a couple of Bonfig reps come out and pitch their spiel on "The Cube" and some of the new features their drives offer, but I've never used Bonfig. We have some old machines out in the field with Bonfig gear on it, but all I know about Bonfig is the old Bonfig gearboxes weren't very good.

Any thoughts on the new drives?