Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
Module 5
Synchronous Motors cntd
Stepper Motor Drives
Industrial Drives
Syllabus:
Synchronous Motor Drives (continued):
Self-controlled synchronous motor drive employing load commutated thryrister inverter,
Starting Large Synchronous Machines,
Permanent Magnet ac (PMAC) Motor Drives,
Sinusoidal PMAC Motor Drives, Brushless dc Motor Drives.
Stepper Motor Drives:
Variable Reluctance
Permanent Magnet
Important Features of Stepper Motors,
Torque Versus Stepping rate Characteristics,
Drive Circuits for Stepper Motor.
Industrial Drives:
Textile Mills, Steel Rolling Mills, Cranes and Hoists, Machine Tools
Prepared by KAVYASHREE S, Asst Professor, Dept of EEE
Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
Self Controlled Synchronous Motor
• The block diagram of a self controlled motor fed from a 3 phase inverter is shown in
below Fig.
• The inverter may be a CSI or VSI. Depending on the type of inverter, the input dc source
may be a controllable current source or controllable voltage source
• The inverter output frequency is determined by the rotor speed.
• The accurate speed of the rotor is tracked by using rotor position sensors, where the
switching devices operate to turn the stator windings ON and OFF. The switches are
fired at a frequency proportional to the motor speed.
• With the increase of load if the rotor slows down, then the stator supply frequency
automatically changes so that the rotor remains synchronized with the rotating field.
• When the motor starts from rest, the motor current will be large at first and then will
decrease with increase of speed.
• The speed of the motor is controlled by varying the dc link voltage to the inverter, by
varying the firing pulses of the controlled rectifier.
• Four quadrant operation is possible if the inverter is fed from a full converter.
Self-controlled synchronous motor drive employing load
commutated thyristor inverter
A Self Controlled Synchronous Motor Drive employing a load commutated thyristor inverter
is shown in Fig.
The drive employs two converters.
1. Source side converter
2. Load side converter
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Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
1. Source side converter
• The source side converter-is a 6-pulse line-commutated thyristor converter.
• For a firing angle range 0 ≤ αs ≤ 90∘, it works as a line-commutated fully controlled
rectifier delivering positive Vds and positive Id,
• For firing angle range 90∘ ≤ αs ≤180∘ , it works as a line-commutated inverter
delivering negative Vds and positive Id.
• Commutation of thyristors by induced voltages of load (here load is a motor) is known
as load commutation.
• Firing angle is measured by comparison of induced voltages in the same way as by the
comparison of line voltages in a line commutated converter
2. Load Side Converter
• For 0 ≤ αl ≤ 90∘ it works as a rectifier giving positive Vdl.
• For, 90∘ ≤ αl ≤ 180∘ , Converter operates as an inverter producing negative Vdl and
carrying positive Id
0 ≤ αs ≤ 90∘, 90∘ ≤ αl ≤ source side converter works as power flow from ac source to the
180∘ and with Vds > Vdl a rectifier and load side motor, thus giving motoring
converter as an inverter operation
90∘ ≤ αs ≤ 180∘ and 0∘ ≤ αl ≤ the load side converter power flow reverses and
90∘, operates as a rectifier and the machine operates in
source side as an inverter. regenerative braking.
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Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
• The magnitude of torque depends on (Vds — Vdl). Speed can be changed by control of
line side converter firing angles.
• Commutation lead angle for load side converter as
• Converter working as an inverter with Fixed value of commutation lead angle= βlc
• When working as a rectifier: βl = 180° (or αl = 0°)
Constant Margin Angle Control:
• To minimize converter rating, with good power factor , the load side converter when
working as an inverter is operated with Constant Margin Angle Control.
• The duration for thyristor under commutation is subjected to reverse bias after current
through it has fallen to zero is given by
Where, u-commutation overlap of the thyristor under commutation
• For successful commutation of thyristor:
where tq is the turn-off time of thyristors and ω the frequency of motor voltage in
radians/sec.
• Since u α Id ; βl can be calculated such that the thyristor under commutation is reverse
biased for a duration γmin for commutation.
• This in turn minimizes βl and maximizes motor power factor. Since γ is kept constant
at its minimum value γmin, the control scheme is called constant margin angle control.
• The dc link inductor Ld reduces the ripple in the dc link current Id - prevents the two
converters from interfering with each other’s operation.
• Fundamental component of motor phase current Is is:
Load commutation has a number of advantages over forced commutation:
✓ it does not require commutation circuits
✓ frequency of operation can be higher and
✓ it can operate at power levels beyond the capability of forced commutation.
• Load side converter performs somewhat similar function as commutator in a dc
machine.
• The load side converter and Self Controlled Synchronous Motor Drive combination
functions similar to a dc machine.
• The drive consisting of load side converter and synchronous motor is known
as Commutator Less DC Motor.
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Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
Closed-loop speed control scheme of load commutated inverter
synchronous motor drive
• It employs outer speed control loop and inner current control loop with a limiter, like a dc
motor .
• The terminal voltage sensor generates reference pulses of the same frequency as the
machine-induced voltages.
• The phase delay circuit shifts the reference pulses to obtain control at a constant
commutation lead angle βlc.
• Depending on the sign of speed error, βlc is set to provide motoring or braking operation.
• Speed ωm can be sensed either from the terminal voltage sensor or from a separate
tachometer.
• An increase in reference speed ωm produces a positive speed error. βlc value is set for
motoring operation.
• The speed controller and current limiter set the dc link current reference at the maximum
permissible value. The machine accelerates fast.
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Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
• When close to the desired speed, the current limiter desaturates, which balances motor and
load torques.
• Similarly a reduction in reference speed produces a negative speed error.
• This sets βlc for regenerative braking operation (i.e. 180°) and the motor decelerates.
Advantages of the drive:
✓ High efficiency
✓ four-quadrant operation with regenerative braking,
✓ high power ratings (up to 100 MW)
✓ ability to run at high speeds (6000 rpm)
Applications:
High speed and high power drives for compressors, blowers, fans, pumps, conveyers, steel
rolling mills, main line traction, ship propulsion and aircraft test facilities.
Single line diagram of a high power drive
At very high power levels, harmonics generated at the source and motor terminals require
special attention. Single line diagram of a high power drive is shown in Fig.
• The source side harmonics are reduced by using a 12-pulse converter.
• For this two six-pulse converters are connected in series.
• The supply for the converters is obtained through a transformer with primary-star and
two secondary windings- one star connected feeds one six pulse converter and another
delta connected feeds another six pulse converter.
• This way 30° phase shift is provided between the input voltages of two six-pulse
converters.
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Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
• The input current waveforms of two converters and source current are shown in Fig.
• The source current is more close to sinusoidal compared to six-pulse converter.
• The harmonics in motor current produce torque pulsations and losses in rotor and
damper windings
• These effects are minimized by using a Self Controlled Synchronous Motor Drive
• The resultant stator mmf has twelve pulse waveform.
• Therefore, torque pulsations and rotor and damper winding losses are reduced.
Starting large Synchronous Motor
• When operating with self control, the starting current is low & starting torque is high
compared to DOL starting as in case of IM.
• To start large synchronous motor in gas turbines and pumped storage power plants, self-
control is employed.
• From standstill to 10% base speed, inverter operate in pulse mode and above 10% speed
synchronous speed the inverted operated with load commutation.
Self Synchronous Motor Drive Employing a Cycloconverter
• Self Controlled Synchronous Motor Drive Employing a Cycloconverter as shown in Fig.
• Firing pulses are generated either by comparison of the motor terminal voltages or by rotor
position sensors as in the case of drive.
• Cycloconverter control has the advantages of smooth low speed operation, four-quadrant
operation with regenerative braking and good dynamic response.
• A synchronous motor without the damper winding is used, because the damper winding
reduces the inductance of the machine, and therefore, its ability to filter out harmonics in
the output voltage of cycloconverter.
• The drive operates in self-controlled mode, the damper winding is not needed for its
conventional roles.
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Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
• The drive is employed in low speed gearless drives for ball mills in cement plants, mine
hoists, reversing rolling mills requiring fast dynamic response and in ships equipped with
diesel generator fed Self Controlled Synchronous Motor Drive Employing a Cycloconverter.
• At such high power levels, considerable saving in cycloconverter cost is obtained by
operating the motor at unity power factor by adjusting the field current.
• A cycloconverter is ideally suitable for such a low frequency supply. Earlier gears were
employed to get low speed operation
Permanent Magnet AC Motor Drives
• Permanent magnet synchronous motors are now commonly known as permanent
magnet ac (PMAC) motors.
• Classified based on the nature of voltage induced in the stator as
✓ Sinusoidally Excited- induced voltage has a sinusoidal waveform- Known as
Sinusoidal PMAC Motors
✓ Trapezoidally Excited- induced voltage has trapezoidal waveform-known as
Trapezoidal PMAC motors.
Sinusoidal PMAC motor
✓ has distributed winding in the stator.
✓ rotor geometries includes inset or interior shown in Fig.
✓ Rotor poles are so shaped that the voltage induced in a stator phase has a sinusoidal
waveform.
Trapezoidal PMAC motors.
✓ The stator has concentrated windings
✓ rotor with a wide pole arc.
✓ The voltage induced in the stator phase has a trapezoidal waveform.
✓ The self-controlled variable frequency drives employing a trapezoidal PMAC motor
are now called brushless dc motor drives
The speed of PMAC motors is controlled by feeding them from variable frequency voltage/currents.
They are operated in self-controlled mode. Rotor position sensors are employed for operation in self-
control mode.
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Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
Servo Drive Employing Sinusoidal PMAC Motor Fed from a
Current Regulated Voltage Source Inverter
• Reference currents i*A, i*B and i*C - generated by a reference current generator.
• The actual speed ωm is compared with reference speed ω*m.
• The speed error is processed through the speed controller.
• The output of the speed controller sets a reference for the amplitude and polarity of the stator
current I*s.
• The stator current templates for the three phases are generated by the rotor position sensors
in such a way that δ′ = π/2.
• When speed error is positive the machine will work as a motor and the drive will accelerate
to reference speed ω*m.
• If speed error is negative, braking will decelerate the motor to reference speed ω*m.
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Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
Brushless DC Motor Drives (Trapezoidal PMAC)
Fig 1 Cross Section of
Trapezoidal PMAC Motor
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Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
• The cross section of a 3-phase 2 pole Brushless DC Motor Drives is shown in Fig.1.
• An inverter fed trapezoidal PMAC motor drive operating in self-controlled mode is
called a brushless dc motor
• It has permanent magnet rotor with wide pole arc.
• The stator has three concentrated phase windings, which are displaced by 120° and
each phase winding spans 60° on each side.
• The voltages induced in three phases are shown in Fig. 2
Reason for getting trapezoidal waveform:
• When revolving in the counter-clockwise direction, up to 1200 rotation from the
position shown in Fig. 1, all top conductors of phase A will be linking the south pole
and all bottom conductors of phase A will be linking the north pole.
• Hence the voltage induced in phase A will be the same during 120 0 rotation as in fig2.
• Beyond 1200, some conductors in the top, link north pole and others the south pole.
Same happens with the bottom conductors.
• Hence, the voltage induced in phase A linearly reverses in next 60 0 rotation.
• Rest of the waveform of phase A and waveforms of phases B and C can be similarly
explained.
Brushless DC Motor Drive for Servo Applications
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Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
• A Brushless DC Motor Drives employing a voltage source inverter (VSI) and a
trapezoidal PMAC motor is shown in Fig. 3(a) the stator windings be fed with current
pulses shown in Fig. 3(b)
• The current pulses are each of 120° duration and are located in the region where induced
voltage is constant and maximum.
• Further, the polarity of current pulses is the same as that of induced voltage.
• Since the air-gap flux is constant, the voltage induced is proportional to speed of rotor.
• During each 60° interval in Fig.4, current enters one phase and comes out of another
phase, therefore, power supplied to the motor in each such interval
The waveform of torque is shown in [Link]
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Torque developed by the motor
• During the period 0∘ to 60∘ , iA = Id and iB = –Id. The current iA enters through the phase
A and leaves through the phase B.
• When transistors Tr1 and Tr6 are ON, terminals A and B are respectively connected to
positive and negative terminals of the dc source Vd.
• A current will flow through the path consisting of Vd, Tr1, phase A, phase B and Tr6 and
rate of change of current iA will be positive.
• When Tr1 and Tr6 are turned OFF, this current will flow through a path consisting of
phase A, phase B, diode D3, Vd and diode D4. Rate of change of iA will be negative.
• A current can be made to follow the reference current I d within a hysteresis band as
shown in Fig. 3(b).
• By reducing the band sufficiently nearly a dc current of desired value can be produced.
• The sensors are mounted at 600 interval and aligned suitably with the stator winding,
• Sensors used with trapezoidal PMAC motor are cheaper compared to those required
with sinusoid PMAC motor. Hence the drive has much lower cost.
Important Features and Applications
• Due to the absence of brushes and commutator, Brushless DC Motor Drives have a number
of advantages compared to conventional dc motors.
• They require practically no maintenance, have long life, high reliability, low inertia and
friction, and low radio frequency interference and noise.
• Due to low inertia and friction, they have a faster acceleration and can be run at much higher
speeds – up to 100,000 rpm and higher are common.
• Because armature windings are on the stator, cooling is much better, i.e. higher specific
outputs can be obtained.
• These motors have high efficiency, exceeding 75% whereas wound field motors of low power
ratings have much lower efficiency.
• The disadvantages compared to conventional dc motors are high cost and low starting torque.
• The size of a brushless dc motor is nearly the same as of conventional dc motor.
• The Brushless DC Motor Drives finds applications in turn table drives in record players,
tape drive for video recorders, spindle drives in hard disk drives for computers, and low cost
and low power drives in computer peripherals, instruments and control systems.
• They also have applications in the fields of aerospace, e.g. gyroscope motors, and biomedical
like cryogenic coolers and artificial heart pumps.
• They are also used for driving cooling fans for electronic circuits and heat sinks.
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Stepper Motor
Defn: Stepper Motor is a brushless electromechanical device which converts the train of
electric pulses applied at their excitation windings into precisely defined step-by-step
mechanical shaft rotation. The shaft of the motor rotates through a fixed angle for each discrete
pulse. This rotation can be linear or angular. It gets one step movement for a single pulse input
Large Varieties of Stepper Motor can be divide into three categories based on the rotor
arrangements. They are as follows
1. Variable Reluctance (VR) Stepper Motor : It is of two types.
i. Single stack variable reluctance motor
ii. Multi-stack variable reluctance motor.
2. Permanent Magnet (PM) Stepper Motor
3. Hybrid Stepper Motor (combination of VR and PM type)
Important Features of Stepper Motors
Stepper motors have following advantages and disadvantages:
Advantages of stepper Motor
• Compatibility with digital systems and do not require digital to analog conversion at
the input.
• While simple open-loop control is good enough for the control of Position and speed,
it can also be used in closed loop position and speed control system.
• A wide range of step angles is available in the range of 1.8 to 90º. The range of torque
is from 1µNm(tiny wrist watch) to 50Nm(Machine Tool applications)
• Bidirectional control is available
• Maximum Torque occurs at low pulse rates. The stepper motor can accelerate its load
easily.
• Low Speed are possible without reduction gear.
• Moment of Inertia is usually Low.
• Multiple stepper motors driven from the same source can maintain perfect
synchronization.
• The starting current is Low
• Low Cost, Compact Size
Disadvantages of Stepper Motor
• Proper Matching between Load, motor and its drive is required.
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• At the higher speed, the value of torque reduces.
• Lower efficiency.
• The Resonance condition arises and requires micro stepping.
• At the high speed, the control is not possible
Applications of stepper Motor
• Machine tools
• Process Control system
• X-Y Recorder
• Robotics
• Textile industry
• Integrated circuit fabrication
• Electric Watches
Step Angle in Stepper Motor
• Definition: Step angle is defined as the angle which the rotor of a stepper motor moves
when one pulse is applied to the input of the stator.
• The positioning of a motor is decided by the step angle and is expressed in degrees.
• The resolution or the step number of a motor is the number of steps it makes in one
revolution of the rotor.
• Smaller the step angle higher the resolution of the positioning of the stepper motor
Variable reluctance stepper motor
1. Single stack variable reluctance stepper motor
• A variable reluctance stepper motor has salient pole (or tooth) stator and rotor.
• Rotor has no windings, stator has concentrated coils placed over the stator poles (teeth).
• Number of phases in Stator winding depends on the connection of stator coils.
• A four phase, 4/2 pole (4 stator poles & 2 rotor poles), single stack variable reluctance
stepper motor is shown in fig.
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Fig(a). Four phase or (4/2 pole), single
stack variable reluctance stepper
motor
• The four phases A, B, C and D are connected to the DC source with the help of a
semiconductor, switches SA, SB, SC and SD respectively as shown in the above figure
(a).
• The phase windings of the stator are energized in the sequence A, B, C, D, A.
• The rotor aligns itself with the axis of phase A as the winding A is energized. The rotor
is stable in this position and cannot move until phase A is de-energized.
• Now, the phase B is excited and phase A is disconnected.
• The rotor moves 90 degrees in the clockwise direction to align itself with the axis of
the phase.
• Similarly the phase C is energized, and the phase B is disconnected, and the rotor moves
again in 90 degrees to align itself with the axis of the phase.
• Thus, as the Phases are excited in the order as A, B, C, D, A, the rotor moves 90 degrees
at each transition step in the clockwise direction.
• Direction of rotation can be reversed by reversing the sequence of switching the phases,
that is A, D, C, B, A.
• The step-angle can be reduced from 90 to 450 by exciting phases in sequence A, A + B,
B, B + C, C, C + D, D, D +A, A.
• When phase A is excited, the rotor aligns with the axis of A.
• When, both phases A and B are excited, the resultant air-gap field axis, and therefore,
rotor turns by 450 in the clockwise direction.
• Rotor can be turned in anticlockwise direction with a step of 45 0 by switching phases
in sequence of A, A + D, D, D + C, C, C + B, B, B + A, A.
• This technique of gradually shifting excitation from one phase to another (e.g. from A
to B with an intermediate step of A + B) is known as microstepping and is used to
realise smaller steps.
Example: A four-phase, 8/6 pole, single-stack variable reluctance motor
• A four-phase, 8/6 pole, single-stack variable reluctance motor is shown in Fig. 8.2.
• The rotor turns with a step angle of 150
• For clockwise rotation, phases are switched in the sequence of A, B, C, D, A
• For anticlockwise rotation, they are switched in the reverse sequence of A, D, C. B, A.
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• When phase A is energised, the rotor turns until a pair of its poles (1 and 4 here) align with
the axis of phase A (Fig. 8.2).
• If B is excited, the rotor turns by 150 in the clockwise direction until rotor poles 3 and 6
are aligned with the; axis of phase B. Here also, the microsteeping can be adapted to reduce
the step size.
• For clockwise rotation with a Step size of 7.50 the sequence A, A + B, B, B + C, C, C+D,D,
D +A, A can be used.
• In order to have self starting capability and bidirectional rotation, the stator and rotor pole
numbers have to be different.
2. Multi Stack or m stack variable reluctance stepper motor
• A Multi Stack or m stack variable reluctance stepper motor is made up of m identical
single stack variable reluctance motor.
• These are used to obtain smaller step sizes of range of 2 to 150.
• The rotor is mounted on the single shaft.
• Here stator and rotor, have the same number of poles and hence, the same pole pitch.
• All the stator poles are aligned in a Multi-Stack motor. But the rotor poles are displaced
by 1/m of the pole pitch angle from each other.
• The stator windings of each stack forms one phase as the stator pole windings are excited
simultaneously.
• Thus, the number of phases and the number of stacks are same.
• There are 12 stator and rotor poles in each stack.
• The pole pitch for the 12 pole rotor is 30 degrees and the step angle or the rotor pole teeth
are displaced by 10 degrees from each other.
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• Rotor poles of stack A are aligned with the stator poles.
• If phase A is de-excited and B excited, rotor poles of stack B will get aligned with the stator
poles.
• Thus, rotor will move by 1/3rd of the pole pitch in anticlockwise direction as shown in fig b)
• If phase B is de-excited and C excited, rotor will move by another 1/3rd of pole pitch in the
anticlockwise direction.
• If phase C is de-excited and A excited, rotor will have moved by one pole pitch compared to
its position in Fig. 8.4(a).
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Let,
N -number of rotor poles (or teeth)
m-number of stacks or phases.
• The variable reluctance motors, both single and m- stack types. have high torque to inertia
ratio, giving high rates of acceleration and fast response.
Permanent Magnet Stepper Motor
• The stator of a permanent magnet stepper motor is simitar to that of a single-stack variable
reluctance motor.
• Rotor is cylindrical and consists of radially magnetised permanent magnets.
• Fig. shows a two-pole permanent magnet stepper motor.
• When phase A is exited with the direction of current i A as shown, north pole of rotor aligns
with the phase A pole on the left.
• The rotor turns through 900 when excitation is switched from phase A to B.
• The direction of rotation depends on the direction of current in phase B.
• When iB is positive, the rotor turns clockwise
• when iB is negative, rotor turns anticlockwise.
• Thus, polarities of winding currents determine the direction of rotation and for bidirectional
operation, provision has to be made for supply of current in either direction.
i. Comparison with Variable Reluctance Motor
• Due to permanent magnet rotor, the motor has:
✓ high Detent (residual) torque
✓ produces higher torque per ampere of stator current
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✓ because of higher rotor volume it has higher inertia
✓ lower torque-to-inertia ratio.
✓ Slower acceleration and response.
• The maximum stepping rate for permanent magnet stepper motors is around 300
pulses/sec. It can be as high as 1200 pulses/sec for variable reluctance motors.
• Due to manufacturing difficulty of small permanent magnet rotor with large number of
poles, the permanent magnet stepper motor are restricted to larger step sizes in the range
of 30-900.
• Disk-type of permanent magnet stepper motor has overcome the above limitations.
ii. Disk-type of permanent magnet stepper motor
• The disk is magnetised with alternating north and south poles.
• Due to thin disk, it can be magnetised up to around 100 individual tiny magnets.
• Simple C shaped two stationary field-poles, offset by half a rotor pole pitch form two
phases.
• When one of the phase is energised, the rotor will align itself with its field-pole.
• When excitation is shifted to another phase, the rotor will turn by half the rotor pole pitch,
to align with field-pole of the second phase.
• To keep the rotor turning in the same direction, second phase is turned-off and first phase
turned-on with its direction reversed
iii. Hybrid Stepper Motor
It combines the important features Of variable reluctance and permanent magnet motors. This is
achieved by incorporating an axial permanent magnet in the middle of the rotor, whose
construction is somewhat similar to the rotor of a variable reluctance motor.
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Advantages of Hybrid Stepper Motor
• The length of the step is smaller.
• It has greater torque.
• Provides Detent Torque with the de-energized windings.
• Higher efficiency at lower speed.
• Lower stepping rate.
Disadvantages of Hybrid Stepper Motor
• Higher inertia.
• The weight of the motor is more because of the presence of the rotor magnet.
• If the magnetic strength is varied, the performance of the motor is effected.
• The cost of the Hybrid motor is more as compared to the Variable Reluctance Motor.
Torque Vs Stepping( or Pulsing) rate Characteristics of a Stepper Motor
• The Torque pulse rate Characteristics of a Stepper Motor gives the variation of an
electromagnetic torque as a function of stepping rate in pulse per second (PPS).
• There are two characteristic curves 1 and 2 shown in the figure below.
• Curve I - known as the Pull-in torque.
• It shows the maximum stepping rate for the various values of the load torque at which
the motor can start, synchronise, stop or reverse.
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• Curve II- known as pullout torque characteristics.
• If the pulse rate is less than S1: The motor can start, synchronise and stop or reverse for
the load torque TL1
• The stepping rate can be increased for the same load as the rotor started the rotation and
synchronized.
• The stepping rate can be increased up to S2: synchronising, without losing the
synchronism, for the load TL1.
• If the stepping rate is increased beyond S2: the motor will lose synchronism.
• Thus, the area between curves 1 and 2 represents the various torque values, the range
of stepping rate, which the motors follow without losing the synchronism.
• This is known as Slew Range and motor operate in slewing mode.
Drive Circuits for Stepper Motor
• A Drive Circuits for Stepper Motor is usually driven from a low voltage dc source.
• When a phase is to be energised, the dc source is connected to the phase by a
semiconductor switch S
• The phase current builds up at the rate decided by the phase winding’s electrical time
constant.
• When the phase is to be de-energised, switch is turned off, which transfers the current
to freewheeling diode DF.
• The current drops to zero, again at the rate decided by the time constant of the phase
winding.
• Motor torque, which is a function of iph, builds up and decays in the same manner.
• In order to maximize torque capability of a stepper motor, current builds up and decay
as fast as possible, ideally as shown by dotted lines in Fig. (b).
• This is specially important when high stepping rates are required, as demonstrated in
Fig. (c). The Drive Circuits for Stepper Motor are designed to incorporate this
requirement.
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i. Unipolar Drive for Variable Reluctance Motors
• In case of variable reluctance motors, phase currents need only be switched on or off
and the current polarity does not matter.
• Unipolar drive, which is capable of supplying current only in one direction, is sufficient.
• Unipolar drive circuit for low power two phase variable reluctance motor is shown in
Fig.
• When switch S1 is closed, phase A winding is connected to the dc source V d and the
phase current builds up
• When S1 is opened, the phase current decays in the freewheeling path consisting of
phase A, DF and RF.
• The external resistor RE reduces the electrical time constant, speeding up the current
build-up.
• During on period of the switch, phase current also flows through the external resistor
RE, energy dissipated in RE.
• Further, energy stored in the phase winding inductance during the on period of the
switch is all dissipated in free-wheeling circuit resistances when the switch is turned
off
(a) (b) and (c) show drive circuit, phase voltage and current waveforms respectively
Prepared by KAVYASHREE S, Asst Professor, Dept of EEE
Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
• An efficient unipolar drive circuit is shown in Fig. It uses chopper principle.
• To energise the phase, semiconductor switches S1 and S2 are closed at t = to.
• This connects phase winding to the dc source voltage Vd and phase current iph builds
up fast.
• When it crosses the rated current IR, S1 is switched off.
• The phase current freewheels through S2 and D2 and decreases below I R.
• After a fixed interval, S1 is turned on. Phase current iph increases.
• When it exceeds the rated current IR, again S1 is turned off.
ii. Bipolar Drive for Permanent Magnet and Hybrid Motors
• The phase winding carries a positive current when semiconductor switches S1 and S2
conduct and it carries a negative current when S3 and S4 conduct.
• The phase winding is energised with a positive current when S1 and S2 are turned on.
• The external resistance RE reduces the electrical time constant allowing rapid build-up
of phase current.
• The phase is de-energised by turning off S1 and S2. Winding current now flows through
the path consisting of D3, source Vd and D4.
• The major proportion of energy stored in phase winding inductance is fed back to the
source and phase current decays rapidly to zero.
Prepared by KAVYASHREE S, Asst Professor, Dept of EEE
Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
Industrial Drives for Applications
Drives requirement for Industrial Applications
1. The torque-speed curve of the industrial load is required. This fixes up the type of motor
required to drive the load.
2. The environmental conditions in the industry where the motor is located. This also decides
the ambient temperature at which the motor operates.
3. Duty cycle of the load, and the frequency of starting and braking.
4 The speed control needed also decides the type of motor.
5. The necessary information is required to decide between the individual and group drive.
6. To meet certain specific duties in a particular application special designs of the motors may
be required.
Drive Considerations for Textile Mills
Ginning (separating): The process of separating seeds from the raw cotton picked from the
field is called ginning.
Blowing: The ginned cotton in the form of bales is opened up and is cleaned up very well in
a blowing room.
Cording -The process of converting cleaned cotton into laps (sheet form of definite width
and length) is done by lap machines which are normal three-phase standard squirrel cage
motors.
Control of ac Motors to have Torque Control
It is clear that the motors used for textile applications must have
i. high starting torque
ii. torque control providing uniform acceleration so that the breakage of the yam is
minimum and the quality of the product is improved.
Prepared by KAVYASHREE S, Asst Professor, Dept of EEE
Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
Table: Summary of requirements of motors for different industrial drives
Drives for Steel Rolling Mills
• Steel rolling mills are either hot rolled or cold rolled.
• These may be either reversing type or continuous type.
• The motors used for reversing mills need operation in both the directions of rotation.
• A four quadrant operation of the motor may be required.
• In the continuous type the motor rotates only in one direction.
i. Reversing Hot Rolling Mills:
• A wide range of speeds of operation is required.
• The direction of rotation must be reversible without causing serious disturbances to power
handling circuits.
• High Reliability and accuracy.
• Ward Leonard control of dc motors is very much suitable here.
• Ac motors employing a variable frequency supply for speed control may be employed.
• The Cyclo-converter have advantages at very low speeds over the dc link converters.
• So, Cyclo-converter fed synchronous motors are used very commonly for driving steel
mills, The converters facilitate four quadrant operation.
ii. Continuous Hot Rolling Mills
• When a mill has to produce billets of different sizes the gap between working rolls of
the mill-stand must be adjustable.
Prepared by KAVYASHREE S, Asst Professor, Dept of EEE
Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
• To be able to reduce the thickness of the metal gradually the motors of consecutive
mill-stands must have differing speeds.
• The sag of the metal between two stands must be avoided.
• The dc motors controlled by Ward Leonard control, ac commutator motors and ac
motors fed from thyristor converters may be advantageously employed here.
iii. Reversing Cold Rolled Mills
• The drive must be capable of reverse rotation. A four quadrant operation must be
possible.
• One or two individually driven motors may be used.
• The coiling motors besides the driving coilers ensure the desired tension of the strip
between the coilers and mill-stand.
• The gap adjustment must he made simultaneously with the reversing.
• The inertia of the motor must be kept low and lower than that of the rollers.
• Torque control as well as speed control must be possible to maintain constant tension
• of the strip.
• It is also limited by stability conditions of the motor. The armature current control may
be employed beyond this limit.
• The acceleration of the drive must be uniform to avoid breaking.
• The motor selected for this purpose must have its torque developed, causing a smooth
acceleration.
• It should be capable of four quadrant operation with smooth speed reversal. Torque
control at different speeds must be possible.
iv. Continuous Cold Rolling Mills
• These work only in the forward direction and no reversing is required.
• The metal passes in one direction only in different stands till the product has the
required thickness.
• The mill may be two high or four high.
• The coiler roller requires accurate torque and speed control.
• The strip tension must be constant and large.
• Low speed operation is required while threading the steel into the rolls.
• Immediately after the threading the speed of the motor must be increased.
• The thyristor power converters provide a variable frequency supply which can be used
for speed control of ac motors. Both torque control and speed control are possible.
• For low speeds, cycloconverters can be used to give a smooth speed control.
• Thyristorized dc drives can be used in the place of Ward Leonard dc drives
Drive Considerations for Machine Tools
• The motors must be reliable and low cost, requiring less maintenance.
• They must be capable of speed control. Some applications may require operation at fixed
speeds.
• Starting torque may vary from about 10% to 250% of full load torque depending upon
the type of machine tool.
Prepared by KAVYASHREE S, Asst Professor, Dept of EEE
Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
• The acceleration of the motor should be sufficiently fast to avoid motor heating during
starting.
• The duty cycles are specified for the machine tool operations. The design of the machine
tool depends upon the duty cycle.
• Peak loads of short duration may alternate with light load in certain operations. A smaller
size motor may be selected if a flywheel is used.
• The motor should have sufficient speed regulation to make use of flywheel. High slip
induction motors or cumulatively compound motors are used.
• Variable speed operation with constant torque at all speeds may be required in machine
tools, such as grinder, planer, polishing, rapid reversing, etc. Variable speed operation
with constant power also finds application.
• Some machine tools require very high speeds of operation. These are high speed grinders.
• Numerically controlled machine tools are being preferred to conventional machine tools.
• The requirements of the drive motor are fast response, wide range of speed control, low
vibrations, better thermal capacity, low maintenance, etc. To have fast.
• Due to the simple, economical and robust construction, reliability and less maintenance,
squirrel cage motors are suitable for driving machine tools.
• Till the advent of thyristor power converters which are capable of providing variable
voltage, variable frequency supply, the speed control of these motors was a problem.
• Pole change multi speed motors are available when definite stepped speed operation is
allowed.
• These connections are available for constant torque as well as constant power operation.
They provide high and low speeds.
The motors for duty cycles S1-S6 are listed:
S1 -Hydraulic pump motors, lubrication pump motor, coolant pump motor.
S2 -Rapid transverse motor.
S3- Main motor for gear shaper, and for drilling machine.
S4- Main drive motor in lathes without clutch in the drive, work head motor in grinding
machine, main drive motor in gear nobbing machine, coolant pump motor with frequent starting
and stopping.
S5- Work head motor in grinding machine with electric braking.
S6- Main and feed drive motors with clutch in the drive.
Drive Considerations for Cranes & Hoist
• The motion of the crane hook is in all three dimensions.
• In crane drives, the acceleration and retardation must be uniform. This is more important
than the speed control.
• For exact positioning of the load creep speeds must be possible.
• When the motion is in the horizontal direction braking is not a problem.
• The speed must be constant while lowering the loads. The steady braking of the motor
against overhauling must be possible.
Prepared by KAVYASHREE S, Asst Professor, Dept of EEE
Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
• The drive must have high speeds in both the directions. The motor must have high speeds
at light loads.
• Mechanical braking must be available under emergency conditions.
• Power lowering may be used when an empty cage or light hooks are lowered.
The duty cycle of cranes depends upon some requirements. These are:
• it must be able to perform strenuous duty
• it must withstand high ambient temperature
• it must be able to work in a dusty atmosphere
• it must provide trouble free operation
• it should have rigid safety measures.
•
Stages in Cement Production
The raw materials of cement are lime and silica. Alumina and ferric oxide are used as fluxing
agents.
i. Collection of raw materials such as lime stone. This is transported to the mill site
and crushed there if the quarry is far off. If the quarry is nearer it is crushed at the
quarry itself and transported to the mill site.
ii. Grinding of this crushed lime stone after the addition with bauxite, iron ore, etc. By
passing air through bottom the lime powder is homogenised
iii. This is fed to the cement kilns where the cement clinker is made at high temperature.
The process where dry powder is used is called dry process.
Prepared by KAVYASHREE S, Asst Professor, Dept of EEE
Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
iv. Wet processes of cement making are also popular. Here the slurry is made by
crushing or grinding the lime stone, bauxite with water. This is then fed to the kiln
through the kiln feed tank.
v. Dry process is preferred to wet process due to the reduced quantity of fuel required.
However the latter becomes economical if the materials are already wet and drying
them may not be economical.
vi. The hot clinker is then air cooled in special types of coolers and made ready for
storage.
vii. After storing for a few days gypsum is added in required quantities and ground to
the required fineness. Every stage has its own drive. Several drives in cement
making are raw mill drives, cement mill drives, kiln drives, crusher drives, waste
gas fan drives and compressor drives.
Requirement of Mill Motors
a. They should have high starting torque. The starting current must be limited to a
maximum of two times full load value to minimise voltage dips. The breakdown
torque should also be high so that sufficient overload capacity is available.
b. An overload capacity of 50% for one minute may be necessary, occurring for
four times in an hour.
c. Three starts from cold conditions and two consecutive starts from hot conditions
per hour against full load.
These are very well met by a three-phase slip ring induction motor. Suitable starting
torques may be accomplished at reduced starting currents by means of rotor
resistance. The motor must have sufficient thermal rating to have frequent starts both
under cold as well as hot conditions. The power factor may be improved by capacitor
bank.
Paper Mills
Process:
Paper making involves two main processes: pulp production and paper conversion.
Pulp is made either by a purely mechanical process or a combination of chemical and
mechanical processes.
Purely mechanical pulp production involves grinding wood logs in large machines at a
constant speed (200-300 rpm), often using synchronous motors with geared drives or
cycloconverters.
Chemical and mechanical pulp production begins with chopping wood into smaller pieces,
treating them with chemicals, and beating them into pulp using beaters. Suitable motors
include slip ring induction motors for beaters and synchronous motors for processes like
chipping and refining.
The paper conversion process includes several stages: wire (couch) section, pressing section,
dryer, calender, and reel section.
Prepared by KAVYASHREE S, Asst Professor, Dept of EEE
Industrial Drives and Applications-BEE702
Each section contributes to removing water from the pulp and forming it into sheets of paper,
which are then wound up on a mandrel.
Paper making machine should satisfy the following requirements.
i. The speed of the paper machine must be constant in view of economy while forming
the sheets of paper.
ii. A speed control range of 10:1 is required so that it is suitable for performing several
jobs.
iii. The speeds of individual sections should be varied independently to allow an
elongation of 5% of the web on the wet end of the paper. The quality of the paper is
decided by this elongation. To allow free hanging of the web between sections, at the
dry end of the paper a definite amount of tension is required and it must be regulated.
The successive sections must be run at speeds with a definite difference. This relative
speed between the sections also affects the pull on the paper. It must be regulated so
that there is no tearing of the paper.
iv. The arrangement should be capable of taking up sag.
v. Even with correct speeds in the last two sections, uneven drying of the paper may
cause variations in tension, which must be taken care of by suitable tension control.
vi. The motor must be capable of inching in order that the wire be cleaned up.
vii. Every section must be able to run at crawling speeds.
viii. The starting and acceleration of the sections must be smooth as well as. The starting
system should be such that peaks of starting current may be avoided, besides obtaining
sufficiently high accelerating torques for fast acceleration.
Prepared by KAVYASHREE S, Asst Professor, Dept of EEE