ErieTec sits down with one of our four Industrial Electrical Specialists, Mike May, to discuss VFD startups, and why you should consider ErieTec for this service.
Variable Frequency Drives are inverters that power motors by converting power from constant frequency system to one where frequency is controllable.
There are a number of reasons a company would choose to outsource a VFD startup. One reason could be your teams comfort level. Maybe your staff isn’t comfortable doing a startup on a VFD. Another reason is staffing issues. If you’re too short staffed to perform the VFD startup yourselves, ErieTec is here to help. It could also be a complicated startup, and experience matters. With over 60 years of experience, we can assure you peace of mind when it comes to your VFD startups.
The Process
The process of requesting a VFD startup can happen a number of different ways. If it were to start with a call to ErieTec to request pricing and availability on a VFD, our Industrial Electrical Specialists would then get involved. From there, our experts would ask any questions they need in order to get familiar with your system quickly and efficiently. We will need to know what the application is so the drive they are doing the startup on is the correct drive. We also need the motor nameplate data so that we can make sure that everything is compatible and whether dynamic braking is involved.
Controlling the drive, whether it be by using a PID control or using set speeds, and knowing what those set speeds are, is also important information for our experts to know about your drive, in order to control it. Acceleration and deceleration times help make sure this goes as seamless as possible from what was existing, to a new drive.
Who should consider this service?
The ideal customer is wastewater or any kind of manufacturer process, conveyors or even natural gas compression. We can do a lot of different startups on a lot of different things – for example – refrigeration and HVAC. The goal is to get the drive up and running for the process to make it actually function the way you need it to, as well as get in the required data for Yaskawa to extend your warranty.
When it comes time to do your startup, when you receive the drive, you do the electrical install and let us know that you are ready. From there, your ErieTec industrial electrical specialist will arrive onsite, check to make sure the wiring is correct. There is a lot of different visual checks, as well as wiring checks, to make sure that when we do power up the drive, nothing happens – other than what is supposed to.
Once there is power, we will do some checks, and then try to adjust the speed reference to make sure drive is actually receiving that information. Depending on the type of startup, whether it’s the PID control or running off a system control, we will try to run it to see where it is at. The acceleration or deceleration times may need to be adjusted for the machine due to the fact that it is unknown before that if this is a new VFD application or things in the system have changed.
From here, the startup is complete, and the Industrial Electrical Specialist on your site can gathered the data to submit to Yaskawa, which will give you an extended warranty on the VFD. Yaskawa has made it where all the data can be completed online – our experts just enter all of the data, and it can tell them when the drive was sold and who it was sold to. The information is then up to the website and within a few days an email is received back saying the data was accepted and Yaskawa has extended a warranty of this particular serial number. Then, we will forward that information to you. You will also receive a PDF of all the parameters that are default, as well as the actual drive program if – in fact – they have DriveWizard and would like that.
In the Industrial Electrical Specialist role here, our team has more than 60 years’ experience in order to professionally do your startup for you. ErieTec is authorized by Yaskawa to do the startups, which allows for that extended warranty. We can solve problems that you are not expecting onsite, rather than an extended startups that would cost downtime and money.
The one thing we would want people to take away from ErieTec doing the drive startup for you is peace of mind – you get peace of mind from a team of experts who know how to do the startup, and peace of mind knowing you have an extended warranty.
If you have interest or need a VFD startup, contact your sales team or the industrial electrical specialists directly.