NEW YORK - Motoring down the aisles of the trade show floor at the International Air-Conditioning, Heating, Refrigerating Exposition (AHR Expo), show attendees couldn’t help but pass by some booths exhibiting new drives, bypasses, and motors.

A.O. Smith Electrical Products Co. (www.aosmithmotors.com) debuted the Juggernaut™ inverter-duty condenser fan motors for commercial air conditioning and refrigeration applications.

There are some features that, according to Warren Doney, product manager, make the motors unique. The Class F insulation system helps motors survive up on a rooftop in a higher ambient condition. The VCM™ voltage change module “makes changing motors from 230 volt to 460 volt really easy, by just unplugging this device and moving it out to change voltages from 230 and 460,” described Doney.

Another feature is the “removable rigid base that screws onto the side of the motor, so the service contractor can carry one motor in stock. If then he needs a rigid base, it has it on, if he doesn’t need it, he can unscrew it and take it of,” said Doney.

Danfoss Drives (www.danfossdrives.com) brought its new VLT® Advanced Active Filter to the AHR Expo.

Ed Smith, regional sales manager, depicted the product by saying, “It looks at the power system, and if its distortion caused by a drive or just distortion in general, it will correct for that distortion, basically producing sinusoidal waveform regardless of what’s going on in your power system. … It’s just like a drive but to the power line instead of the motor.” It has a voltage range of 380-480 vac 50-60Hz, and 500-690 vac 50-60Hz. The VLT Advanced Active Filter can be wall-mounted.

Another new product that the company showed off was the Electronically Controlled Bypass (ECB).

To illustrate how it works, Smith described the ECB by saying, “What we’ve done is come up with an ECB where the motor’s going to run off the line power, off the drive, right from the keypad. If the drive fails, you can push this button, and run the motor across the line. And you can say, ‘Well that button is right on the drive.’ This is on the control side. If something happens to the power section of the drive, you can still use the logic of the drive to run the motor even in bypass.”

Features include bypass fault logging and time stamping, operation off of any two of the three input phases, and a separate power source for drive logic. It has an advanced firefighter’s override, coordinated with the VLT HVAC drive’s firefighter’s override mode.

Eaton Corp. (www.eaton.com) introduced the CFX9000 clean power adjustable-frequency drive. It uses integrated tuned passive filters to significantly reduce harmonics at the drive terminals. In addition to reducing harmonic distortion, the drive prevents transformer overheating and overloading of breakers and feeders. This enables the application of adjustable-frequency drives on generators and other high-impedance power systems. An end user can purchase just the drive or have it customized, according to Ruben Ortiz, application software engineer.

Also new is the HVX9000 IntelliPass drive. The HVAC drive can be used for applications such as pumps and fans, said Ortiz. It is designed around the Cutler-Hammer® HVX9000 drive. The IntelliPass is an intelligent drive integrated with a reliable bypass configuration and incorporates the Intelligent Technologies (IT) electromechanical contactor for the integrated bypass.

Emerson Climate Technologies, Control Techniques Division (www.hvacr-drives.com) introduced a drive at the expo. Named after the Affinity Laws, the Affinity building automation HVAC drive is a variable-frequency drive. It can connect to BACnet, Johnson Controls Metasys, LonWorks, Modbus, Profibus, and Ethernet, as well as other I/Os. The drive has a “fire mode input, so it basically runs til destruction … which is becoming more and more important in building safety,” said Alex Harvey, director of product management ac & dc drives. It has two built-in PID loops for pressure and temperature regulation.

The SmartCard allows the user to configure the drive, make changes to the settings, and store them on the card.

Harvey explained the way the card works, “If you ever had to change the controller out or somebody changes the configuration and it wasn’t working again, you can get back to a known setting with this card.”

Yaskawa (www.yaskawa.com) introduced the NEMA 1 plenum rated E7N narrow bypass package for the E7 drive/bypass package. Designed specifically for commercial HVAC applications, ratings include 208V, three-phase, 1-20 hp; and 480V, three-phase, 1-20 hp.

Options include drive service switch, three-contactor bypbass, 3 or 5 percent line impedance, and BACnet and LonWorks serial communication.

Publication Date: 02/18/2008