David Hughes, managing director for ABB in the UK, explains how, with the next 10 years potentially being crucial in averting climate catastrophe, a new generation of engineers holds the potential to unlock unprecedented energy savings in industry. With climate change seemingly always in the headlines, it’s becoming harder to escape the fact that urgent … Continue reading →
Despite being available for over 50 years, the true energy saving potential of variable speed drives can often be overlooked, especially by a new generation of engineers. As David Hughes, ABB UK’s Managing Director argues, the arrival of net-zero could be the catalyst that increases the uptake of the technology. Recent research reports indicate that … Continue reading →
When selecting variable speed drives and motors for potentially explosive atmospheres, the manufacturer’s instructions and recommendations must be followed, otherwise explosion protection measures will be compromised. ABB’s Luciano Santos and Andrew Bould share some advice. Throughout the food and beverage sector, variable speed drives (VSDs) and electric motors are renowned for contributing to productivity improvement … Continue reading →
Cavitation is generally bad news for dairy producers, and its effects can have a severely negative impact on the performance and lifetime of pump systems. ABB’s Andrew Bould looks at how variable speed drives (VSD) can be used to combat it. The dairy industry relies heavily on pumps to transport raw and processed product from … Continue reading →
David Hughes, Managing Director for ABB in the UK, reflects on the past, present and future of the ubiquitous variable speed drive as new generation of engineers are increasingly becoming aware of its advantages. The Past The variable speed drive (VSD) is now over 50 years old. Its purpose in life, from then to now, … Continue reading →
We are pleased to announce that following the success of the ABB variable speed drive webinars in 2020, ABB and IDS are once again teaming up to provide these valuable online learnings. The experts at ABB have created these webinars with the intention of sharing knowledge and best practices. The webinar topics run from an … Continue reading →
Sludge Density Pump Control or Reactive Pump Control (RPC) Introduction Sludge is created when a liquid containing solids is settled. Typically, this can be in PSTs (Primary Settling Tanks) or Humus Tanks in sewage treatment works. Alternatively, it can occur in mineral processing plant in clarifiers. The pumps that take the sludge from the bottom … Continue reading →
Inverters rectify ac to dc then chop it up again with transistors to provide a variable frequency, variable voltage pseudo ac to create a variable speed motor from a fixed speed ac motor. This chopping takes place many times a second from around 1kHz to 16kHz. This is the switching frequency. At lower switching frequencies, … Continue reading →
Also known as variable speed drives or VSD/VFD, an inverter is a clever box which sits between the electrical supply and an electric motor. What Does An Inverter Do? An inverter changes the fixed frequency from the mains to a variable frequency output, in turn this can change the speed of the motor, which can … Continue reading →
As the water industry moves towards AMP 7 (asset management plan), among the key challenges facing the sector is ensuring maximum uptime of the installed base of pumps and their motors and drives. ABB‘s Clayton Mead, UK Water Manager – Drives, offers some advice. Whereas previously pumps, motors or drives had a back up that … Continue reading →
