Smaller panels with cold plate mounting
30 September 2011
Frequency inverter drives need to have their electronic components kept cool in order to achieve a long service life. Normal practice is to use alloy cooling fins on the back of the drive, known as a heat sink. Although the power to be dissipated is low, often below 100W, the low temperature differential to the surrounding air results in heat sinks that have significant dimensions.
However, by mounting the inverter onto a substantial metal surface, cooling from the heat sink is no longer necessary. This reduces the depth required in the panel – in the case of larger inverters quite substantially, for example 250mm reduces to 164mm at 18kW. Lenze offer a cold plate version of their 8400 StateLine, HighLine and TopLine inverters for single phase supply 0.25 to 2.2kW and three phase 0.37 to 45kW.
An additional design change has resulted in small cold plate inverters up to 3kW having a mounting width reduction from 102 to 70mm. Side by side mounting without a gap is now possible and in this case the volume required in the panel reduces by more than 30% compared to the previous cold plate model. Cold plate inverters are screw mounted onto substantial metal surfaces that are flat, and the use of heat conducting paste is recommended.
The Lenze 8400 range are modern system inverters with a range covering from simple single axis drives to networked multi-axis, even with synchronous servo motors. An energy saving feature included at no extra cost is VFC eco software that can save up to 30% energy costs at partial loads. Profibus, ProfiNet and EtherCAT communications are optional and CANopen is standard. A further option is Safe Torque off which repays the extra cost by replacing external components and reducing control complexity.
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