ABB Conference Showcases New Motor, Drive Technologies

The exhibit hall at the ABB Automation & Power World wasbuzzing this week as attendees checked out some of the latest technologyofferings. Here's a rundown of two new product introductions at the show:

HDP Series AC Induction Servomotor

A major source of energy loss in a motor is due to the ironloss associated with the stator winding. ABB's Fabrizio Galbiati says engineershave addressed this problem in a new line of high performance, low voltage ACmotors with a low-loss lamination technology to achieve 95-96 percentefficiency. More significantly, the HDP series motors, which come in a range ofsizes and power ratings from 2 to 270 kW, achieve comparable performance tosimilar motors but with a smaller footprint. The result of a five-yeardevelopment effort, Galbiati says the design calls for 50 percent less materialand employs a cast aluminum rotor to achieve low inertia, features that ABB isbetting offset the 20 percent higher price tag than conventional motors.Capable of operating at constant torque, the motor line is targeted atapplications such as extrusion machines and coil winders, which require hightorque at low speeds. ABB has also introduced a compatible drive for the motor.

ABB Conference Showcases New Motor, Drive Technologies A

Ultra Low Harmonic Drive

Harmonics are a headache in motor operations, which can leadto useful power wasted in the form of heat. While harmonics are typically managedat the DC to motor point, ABB has come up with an alternative way of thinkingabout the problem. "We basically found a way to take clean, sinusoidal powerand do something to it," says ABB's Peter Walker. Their solution is the Ultra Low Harmonic Drive,which takes the same technology used to convert DC to the motor and uses it onDC to utility power. "So instead of managing the harmonics that are introducedin the process of converting AC to DC, we don't generate them in the firstplace," he says.

ABB Conference Showcases New Motor, Drive Technologies B