Versatile efficiency through digital drives

Digitalisation also offers new possibilities for drive technology. Increased availability, energy savings and simplified installation are just some of the advantages of digital motion control.
 

Predicitive maintenance ensures productivity

Thanks to the considerable degree of automation, manufacturing plants today have achieved a very high level of productivity. However, this also brings with it the challenge that unplanned downtime causes immense costs and leads to serious problems with delivery deadlines. This increases the importance of condition monitoring and predictive maintenance.

Thanks to the possibilities of data acquisition, its evaluation and diagnoses based on it, machine operators and manufacturers can now no longer just maintain their plants reactively, but proactively. Digital drive systems generate a large amount of operating data, which – supplemented by sensor data – can be permanently evaluated. With the help of machine learning algorithms and artificial intelligence, potential damage can be detected from this data before it occurs.
 

Digital twin

In addition to determining and generating data, smart drives also enable their storage and communication with other machine parts. Supplemented by intelligent software solutions, digital twins of drives and even entire plants can be created: With standardised communication interfaces, the digital twin accompanies the entire life cycle of a machine - from virtual commissioning and control during operation to maintenance and recycling. Thanks to the recorded real-time data, the digital twin "understands" the current state and can calculate future states. In this way, plants can be commissioned virtually and it is possible to calculate in advance whether and how, for example, frequency converters and electric motors work together.
 

Fast integration

In general, digitalisation enables simplified installation and commissioning of drives: The appropriate slogan for this is "parameterisation instead of programming". While the configuration of conventional drives sometimes requires extensive programming knowledge, with modern systems it is sufficient to enter only a few details about the application and set a few parameters - the rest is done in the background by the drive solution. Motor, inverter and control communicate with each other, exchange the necessary data and can thus be put into operation in a short time.
 

Reducing energy consumption

Another challenge in modern manufacturing is the increasingly strict regulations to reduce energy consumption. Frequency-controlled drives can open up great potential for energy savings, because with them, an electric motor only outputs the power that is actually needed in an application at the time.

Wide-band-gap semiconductors (WBG) can significantly increase the efficiency of frequency converters. They enable operation at much higher voltages and temperatures than conventional silicon. In addition, switching and conduction losses are lower. In servo drives, WBG materials reduce the losses of the power semiconductors by up to 80 percent. Power electronics based on silicon carbide (SiC) and gallium nitride (GaN) enable the construction of smaller dimensioned devices that work faster and offer higher efficiency.
 

Miniaturisation of the drive

The inverter itself can also be realised in a small form factor housing thanks to the thermal and cyclic capabilities of SiC and GaN. Ultimately, the technology even makes it possible to integrate the motor and drive electronics and thus miniaturise the entire drive system. This results in drives that are both compact and powerful and can be effortlessly integrated directly into a robot arm, for example.

The global motion control market is expected to reach USD 20.0 billion by 2027, at a CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period (Source: MarketsAndMarkets)