The Finnish drives manufacturer Vacon has announced a new family of motor-mountable AC drives with ratings from 1.1kW to 30kW – claimed to be the widest power range in their class. The drives, which will make their public debut at the German SPS/IPC/Drives show in November, have been designed for use in extremely harsh environments, and to cut space and costs by avoiding the need for extra enclosures.

“The Vacon 100 Motor Mountable AC drives (above) are our most robust AC drives, featuring a die-cast frame, and large and open cooling ribs,” says Vacon’s executive vice-president, Heikki Hiltunen. “The enclosure is rated up to IP66 and designed to withstand severe vibrations, so it`s really made for a rough ride. These drives are not bound to a specific mounting location, so they open completely new ways of using AC drives.

“Unlike most of the competition, these AC drives are intelligent and flexible,” he adds. “They have built-in PLC programming capability to meet the special requirements of a machine or an application. The powers go up to 30kW, which is highest in this class.

“All these features give an edge, for instance, for machine-builders who want to offer their customers a complete, optimised solution with a minimised installation cost,” Hiltunen continues.

The new drives also mark Vacon’s entry into the decentralised drives market. They are designed to be located as close to the motor as possible, typically mounting on the motor itself, or on the machine they are driving. They allow engineers and machine-builders make the most of the space available in and around a machine, avoiding the need for separate electrical rooms, long shielded motor cables, and drive cabinets.

The RoHS-compliant drives incorporate harmonics-filtering chokes as standard and can be connected to public electrical networks without extra precautions. The drives’ components do not contain environmentally harmful substances.