“The Evolution of Variable Speed Drives in the Pump Industry”
Variable speed drive technology has been around for many years, however over the past decade with the development of new power devices and magnetic materials VSD methodology has changed course. This course change has given rise to substantial confusion by users and specifiers of variable speed drive equipment. Add to that the difficulty in evaluating efficiency and power factor and the subject of drive selection becomes a daunting task indeed not to mention reliability, maintenance cost and life cycle costing. That fact of the matter is:
There is no single type of drive system which is perfect for all applications!
Therefore, the End User / System Owner must choose the most appropriate variable speed drive control system for the job to be done. In today’s economy that means taking the total system into account using the Life Cycle Costing approach. By specifying the most efficient, reliable system possible the equipment owner can expect optimum reliability and efficiency as well as reduced maintenance cost.
With respect to variable speed drive technology, there has been numerous articles, presentations and technical papers extolling the praises of various types of speed control. In many if not all the cases the major focus is on energy conservation. The reality is that the End User is concerned about bottom line savings, energy efficiency / savings is just a portion of the bottom line.
What is the best drive technology for your application? Dynamatic sponsored a webinar through Pumps and Systems Magazine titled “The Evolution of Variable Speed Drives in the Pump Industry”. This 1-hour webinar reviews the history of variable speed drive technology as well as the drive selection process using a Life Cycle Costing approach. Proper drive selection will provide years of reliable service, poor selection can reap costly down time, lost production, high maintenance cost and wasted energy.
Contact Dynamatic for a cost analysis and system efficiency calculators.
Interested in viewing the replay? Click Here.