Electrical Drives

►Electrical drives are integral part of industrial and automation processes, particularly where precise control of speed of the motor is the prime requirement. In addition, all modern electric trains or locomotive systems have been powered by electrical drives. Robotics is another major area where adjustable speed drives offer precise speed and position control.✦

►A drive operates and controls the speed, torque and direction of moving objects. Drives are generally employed for speed or motion control applications such as machine tools, transportation, robots, fans, etc. The drives used for controlling electric motors are known as electrical drives.✦

►The drives can be of constant or variable type. The constant speed drives are inefficient for variable speed operations; in such cases variable speed drives are used to operate the loads at any one of a wide range of speeds.✦

►The adjustable speed drives are necessary for precise and continuous control of speed, position, or torque of different loads. Along with this major function, there are many reasons to use adjustable speed drives. Some of these include✦

➻ To achieve high efficiency: Electrical drives enable to use wide range of power, from milliwatts to megawatts for various speeds and hence the overall cost of operating the system is reduced

➻ To increase the speed of accuracy of stopping or reversing operations of motor

➻ To control the starting current

➻ To provide the protection

➻ To establish advanced control with variation of parameters like temperature, pressure, level, etc.