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Product category: Industrial Drives/Controls
News Release from: Danfoss Motion Controls | Subject: Decentral range
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 29 July 2002

Drives cut control panel real estate and
cabling

Danfoss Motion Controls has responded to growing market demand for physical space and cable economies on multimotor installations with the launch of the Decentral range of motor controllers.

Danfoss Motion Controls has responded to growing market demand for physical space and cable economies on multimotor installations with the launch of the Decentral range of motor controllers The VLT Decentral FCD 300 is a totally enclosed frequency convertor while the simpler DMS 300 is a soft start motor controller

Both are designed for remote mounting close to or actually on the drive motor, dispensing with the need for a central control cabinet and the associated expensive cabling, giving Danfoss a full drive-motor-gear profile for the food and beverage and materials handling markets The trend towards decentralised control has grown rapidly as manufacturers have become ever more reluctant to allocate expensive real estate to large electrical control panels.

Lengthy cable runs out to the drives on the plant have become increasingly more expensive, and in the food industry particularly, a trap for dirt and germs.

Recent EMC legislation has also driven the trend since EMC filters are only effective for given cable lengths and hence shorter cable lengths between drive and motor simplifies filtering and gives a better EMC solution.

The evolution of reliable fieldbus control now means that digital control of a motor starter or variable speed drive mounted on the production plant itself, is fast, simple and incorruptible.

The VLT Decentral FCD 300 is an IP66 high-performance frequency convertor designed for demanding process line applications and featuring full protection for the drive and motor, including motor over temperature and mains loss protection.

Fully protected motor brake control and supply is included making the FCD300 ideal for use with mechanically braked motors.

A version with integral mains isolator switch is also available.

The new DMS 300, in a high durability IP66 enclosure similar to but smaller than its sibling FCD 300, offers full fixed speed motor control functions including soft start, reversing, mechanical brake control, thermistor and electronic thermal control via an integrated AS-interface.

Profibus is also available as an option and DeviceNet is planned for the future.

Five different cost and performance models are offered initially, from a simple mono-directional S version with thermistor control, through to the full functionality extended E version with fieldbus control.

Space provision is made on the base units for an isolating switch for full galvanic isolation of the motor without the need for a separate enclosure.

The new Decentral range offers the option of mounting the controllers either on the motor terminal box, or local to the motor since the robust die-cast case is configured to fit the terminal box of IEC standard cage motors of any manufacture.

Fieldbus control from RS485, ProfiBus DP or AS-i bus means that control cabling can be greatly simplified and cost reduced compared to a standard drive system installed in a central control cabinet, although standard analogue controls are also provided.

Initially for applications to 3kW, the FCD 300 and DMS 300 have been designed with a high integrity anticorrosive finish specially formulated to withstand hosing down on food production lines and ideally suited to the food and beverage industries.

The twin part construction makes for simple commissioning and fast service.

All installation work is completed in the bottom section while the top control section plugs into the bottom section and is clamped up with only four screws.

Fast, reliable service and commissioning could not be easier than with this simple plug-and-play concept.

Power cable looping facilities combined with the two part construction ensures trouble free mains cabling as cables can be looped in the installation section independently of the control section.

The control section can also be powered up on the bench for control commissioning offline without mains connection.

The Decentral motor control concept is becoming very popular with major manufacturers across Europe because of the simplicity of installation and the savings which accrue from locating the controllers on the production equipment rather than in a distant control cabinet.

For example, BMW has already taken over 450 DMS units for a project in Germany.

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