Smart drives protect their motors: Motion control systems get a predictive maintenance boost from intelligent drive electronics that perform like human nervous system reflexes, writes technical journalist

摘要

LIKE the self-maintaining robots of science fiction, modern machines have become more intelligent, and in some ways also more human. They are incorporating more decentralised intelligence, which operates like a human's autonomic nervous system. This makes it possible for a packaging machine, for example, to protect itself from breakdowns through quick reflexes, in the form of error diagnostics and reactions handled in the drive. Without any detour through the 'brain', or control system, intelligent variable frequency drives (VFDs) can diagnose machine problems and perform predictive maintenance before failure occurs or production quality slips. Such innate intelligence supports high levels of machine reliability, availability, throughput and precision.