Articles

5 Types of Variable Speed Drives - For Different Industries Applications

by Jack Snap Writer
Speed adjustment techniques have been used in transmitting mechanical power to machinery. Before electric motors were invented, mechanical speed changers were used to control the mechanical power provided by water wheels and steam engines. When electric motors came, means of controlling their speed were developed immediately.



Today, different types of VSDs (Variable Speed Drives) such as mechanical drives, hydraulic drives, and electric drives compete with one another in the industrial drive market, as detailed below:

  1. AC Motor Drives
    AC variable speed drives are also known as variable frequency drives, inverters, VFDs, and micro drives. This drive is used in many applications such as swimming pool pumps, conveyor belts, air compressors, lathes, mills, food processing production lines, HVAC fans, wastewater treatment pumps, blowers, and many more applications in the industrial manufacturing world.

  2. Mechanical Adjustable Speed Drives
    Machine speed drives come in two different types that are variable pitch drives and traction drives. Variable pitch drives are pulley and belt drives, in which the pitch diameter of one or both pulley can be adjusted. And traction drives transmit power through metal rollers and in this drive the input or output speed ratio is adjusted by moving the rollers to change the diameter of the contact patch.

  3. Hydraulic Speed Drives
    There are three different types of hydraulic drives: hydrostatic drives, hydrodynamic drives, and hydro viscous drives. A hydrostatic drive consists of a hydraulic pump and a hydraulic motor in which the speed is regulated by regulating the fluid flow with a valve or by changing the displacement of the pump or motor. Whereas hydrodynamic drives use oil to transmit torque between an impeller of the constant-speed input shaft and a rotor on the adjustable-speed output shaft.

    Hydroviscous drives consist of one or more discs or connected to the input shaft pressed against similar discs. In hydro viscous drive, torque is transmitted from the input shaft to the output shaft through an oil film between the discs.

  4. DC Motor Drives
    DC drives are also known as the DC motor speed control system and the speed of the DC drive is directly proportional to the armature voltage and inversely proportional to the motor flux. It has become expensive and today most DC motor drives have been retrofitted with an AC motor and AC variable speed drives because AC variable speed drives are less expensive than DC systems, are more available, and more efficient than DC systems.

  5. Eddy Current Motor Drives
    An eddy current consists of a fixed speed motor and an eddy current clutch. And the clutch contains a fixed speed motor and an adjustable speed motor that is spirited by a small air gap. It is less efficient than other types of drives. Today, all eddy current motor drives are obsolete and there are few manufacturing industries across the globe that still use eddy current motor drives.

Conclusion:
There are some different types of VSDs (Variable Speed Drives) that are used to control the speed of machinery and motors in several industries. VSD technology today mainly consists of solid-state components in a single system.

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About Jack Snap Innovator   Writer

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Joined APSense since, July 10th, 2019, From California, United States.

Created on Oct 14th 2019 07:32. Viewed 489 times.

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