Vydas releases Universal Power Cell

A Vydas International Marketing product story

Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team Sep 19, 2008

Vydas International Marketing has added The Universal Power Cell (UPC-KWH) to its range of Hall effect power sensors for motor load control.

Manufactured by Load Controls, the UPC-KWH is designed for precision process monitoring and control where accurately monitoring energy usage is critical to production.

The product can reliably cope with difficult motor load sensing tasks, such as on the output of variable frequency or inverter drives.

In combination with associated KWH3 energy meter and DM100 load meter, the UPC-KWH is suitable for applications such as batch mixing where the sensor accumulates the total power absorbed in the mixing process for consistent production batches.

Examples of this are processes such as the mixing of rubber, dough and clay, which all respond to energy control.

The UPC-KWH is also suitable for extruding applications where accumulated power is indicative of extruder process throughput.

The UPC-KWH can be used for power generation and accurately monitoring power in difficult circumstances.

It measures true power (KW) and momentarily closes a relay contact every kilowatt hour, kilowatt minute or kilowatt second.

The pulse can signal a computer, meter or counter for monitoring power accumulation.

An analogue 0-10V output reflects the instantaneous power and can drive a meter or computer.

The KWH-3 Energy Meter takes the pulsed energy output from the UPC-KWH and displays energy usage.

Reset is with the front panel keypad or remote contact.

In addition, the DM-100 Power and Load Meter monitors the analogue output from the UPC-KWH and can be calibrated to read the motor load on its bright LED display in per cent, horsepower or watts (KW).

The DM100 meter can read average or peak emphasis, a circuit which displays the peak load long enough to be easily read.

The Universal Power Cell Series includes the original standard UPC with analogue outputs and the UPC-FR (Fast Response) for machine tool or very fast applications as well as the UPC-E (Ethernet) which has an Ethernet connection and an analogue output.

All models of the Universal Power Cell are motor load sensors that monitor true power (HP KW) and work with both Fixed and Variable Frequency three-phase power as well as single phase, DC, and brushless DC.

The UPC has three balanced Hall effect sensors and has a fast response.

However, an on board response adjustment slows its output for applications that require a slower response time.

The control of many process machines, such as grinders, mills, mixers, extruders, rollers, pumps, compressors, conveyers and crushers may be improved dramatically by sensing true power instead of current.

The UPC makes this possible under all operating conditions.

It accurately measures true electrical power drawn on the input to any industrial electric motor and performs well in applications on the output of variable frequency or inverter drives.

The UPC is suitable for any three-phase, single phase AC or DC motors.

The UPC doesn't use current transformers or external voltage transformers.

Its full scale range may be adjusted by the user to accommodate any motor size up to 120KW.

By measuring the power drawn by stirrer or paddle drives, the UPC can detect minute viscosity changes on machines from small laboratory models to large production machines.

Power changes may be used to indicate the start or end of a cycle, viscosity end-point or overload.

Applications include mixture viscosity, tool condition, optimum feed rate, pump or fan flow, beginning or end of processes, detecting obstructions and overloads, loss of load or loss of pump prime.

The UPC can be used anywhere electric motors are used.