Lenze is offering a cold-plate mounting option for its 8400 series of inverters in the power range 0.25–45kW, cutting the volume of panel space needed by about 25%.

Up to 3kW, using cold plates allows the inverters’ mounting width to be reduced from 102mm to 70mm, making side-by-side mounting possible without a gap. In this case, the panel volume needed reduces by more than 30%.

Normally, frequency inverter drives use alloy cooling fins – heatsinks – to keep their electronic components cool to prolong their service lives. Although the power that needs to be dissipated is often less than 100W, the small difference in temperature with the surrounding air means that heatsinks have to be large.

By screw-mounting the inverter onto a substantial metal surface, heatsink cooling is no longer needed, reducing the depth required in the panel. For example, for an 18kW inverter, the depth reduces from 250mm to 164mm. Lenze is offering cold-plate versions of its 8400 StateLine, HighLine and TopLine inverters for single-phase supplies from 0.25–2.2kW and three-phase from 0.37–45kW.