Speedy installation for digital servo

A new era in motion control is dawning, according to Unimatic Engineers, which reckons the new ViX digital servo drive can be installed in 15min.

A new era in motion control is dawning, according to Unimatic Engineers, which reckons its new ViX digital servo drive can be installed in 15min, as well as setting new cost/performance standards in all but the highest power sectors.

ViX is also expected to set the standards for the development of a full range of other drive technologies.

Key to the speed of commissioning is advanced auto-tuning software, which requires very little parameter input by the installing engineer other than maximum and minimum load inertia.

Indeed if the ViX, made by Parker Electromechanical, is used with a motor from the same company, only the model reference number is needed.

All ViX drives are supplied with Easi-V, a powerful yet easy-to-use front-end software tool for rapid system configuration and tuning.

Windows-based and using wizards, context-sensitive help and hierarchically structured pull-down menus, Easi-V has a built-in database of Parker motor parameters for rapid set up.

Alternatively it can be loaded with the parameters of the particular motor used in each application, in which case built-in auto-correction algorithms aid set up and commissioning.

The software can even identify incorrect wiring connections if any are made and automatically compensate for the error.

It also has its own oscilloscope function, enabling the servo response to be displayed on a PC screen for monitoring the effect of load and system changes during commissioning.

The ViX servo drive packs a powerful controller (2.5 and 5A options being available) and 250/500VA output stage into a 125 x 42 x 85mm case, yet provides very high levels of dynamic performance and truly outstanding acceleration performance.

Both power options accommodate motor bus voltages up to 80V and have a peak current capability of three times their continuous rating, hence the groundbreaking acceleration characteristics.

By way of examples, when teamed with Parker's BE163 brushless servomotor the ViX500 drive can accelerate to 5000rev/min and back to rest in under 6ms, and with Parker's SMB82 'salient pole' brushless motor, it can deliver a peak torque of 5Nm at speeds up to 2000rev/min.

Unimatic says ViX is suitable for direct panel mounting or, using an optional adapter, for attachment to a standard DIN rail.

As such it is suitable for a wide variety of single- and multi-axis motion control applications, particularly those performing autonomous operations within decentralised control schemes.

The power stage features full pulsewidth modulation control with sinusoidal commutation, and allows users to choose between resolver or encoder feedback.

Capable of operating in position-, velocity- or torque-control mode, ViX series drives are fully digital and use a number of innovative techniques to capitalise on the inherent power of their core processor.

For example, advanced field-oriented control, using a special set of transforms to derive the power stage control signals, ensures optimum performance at all speeds and direct control of the torque value.

This improves bandwidth and dynamic performance enabling higher useable torque figures to be achieved over a wide speed range, plus higher efficiency and reduced harmonic generation.

Traditional servo amplifiers using independent lowpass filters and integrators to remove offsets, cause motor phase mismatches and instantaneous imbalance of the motor phase current leading to degradation.

These responses have been designed out and this feature prevents the extraneous motor heating and additional harmonics, that have previously plagued servo system designers.

ViX series servo drives can be controlled directly from a PC, or operate autonomously from built-in motion control programs executed in response to external events or signals from a host controller, such as a PLC.

The built-in controller supports all standard motion control functions, as well as a number of advanced operations such as encoder following and registration.

It is equipped with an RS232C interface as standard, and can optionally be fitted with a fieldbus module for CANopen and RS485 communications.

Standard I/O facilities include five digital inputs and three digital outputs, all of which offer software-configurable termination characteristics and 5 or 24V operation.

Unimatic has also released the first ViX based indexer servo drive, the new ViX drive-only product.

This new ViX drive-only package offers all the attributes of digital control but with industry-standard step direction and +/-10V analogue velocity and torque demand control inputs, for users who wish to migrate existing machines to intelligent digital servo technology without changing host controllers.

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