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Product category: Industrial Drives/Controls
News Release from: Danfoss Motion Controls | Subject: FC302 Automation Drive
Edited by the Engineeringtalk Editorial Team on 07 March 2006

Drive keeps them dancing in Copenhagen

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Drive powers cooling unit in hotel party room and this keeps power consumption and noise down, and, due to the drive's smart logic controller, there is no need for an external PLC control unit.

Every weekend in the centre of Copenhagen, celebrations take place in the basement of the Hotel Savoy Weddings, dinners, live music and dancing are common, but local noise restrictions means there can be no open windows to disturb residents in and around the hotel

So temperature control of the function rooms is essential but normally only at busy weekends.

The hotel installed a Danfoss VLT FC302 Automation Drive to power a cooling unit from Airedale, and this does the trick with low power consumption, low noise and low commissioning, and, due to the drive's integral smart logic controller, the need for an external PLC control unit has been eliminated.

Cooling is initiated by pushing a start button in the function room.

A pressure sensor transmits the compressor's suction pressure to the FC302 drive, and the smart logic controller moderates the compressor speed and thus maintains the suction pressure constant at a level corresponding to the required temperature of the outlet air.

Any rise in the outlet air temperature is reflected on the suction pressure and this is registered by the PID process controller, which speeds up the compressor drive and thus brings the inlet air temperature back down.

If the load disappears, as when the outlet temperature has reached the lower limit, the logic controller will shift the drive into energy saving standby mode, ready for the temperature to rise again.

Installation was simplified by having only the start-stop wiring and the cooling pipes connecting the HVAC unit with the ventilation units inside the building.

Nevertheless, the system responds rapidly to changing needs for cooling while providing energy savings and optimal compressor operation.

Without the need for any external PLC, the compressor is kept running within the allowable speed range, ensuring precise air temperature control with low power consumption.

"We have installed a similar system for another company, where comfort temperature controlled by the smart logic controller is maintained in two separate office rooms without PLCs and with no wiring between the rooms and the HVAC unit", said Miquel Lopes of Glenco in Copenhagen, the firm that installed the Airedale units.

"The VLT drive simply maintains the suction pressure, and thus the outlet temperature, at the desired level".

"When the load changes, the drive reacts and regulates the temperature".

"It runs perfectly".

This Copenhagen application illustrates how intelligence integral within the drives takes over PLC functions.

The VLT way of simple PLC programming is done by the smart logic controller - an easy and all round way to enable the drive to react to literally any sort of event, including the status of the drive and motor itself.

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