Continuing geopolitical uncertainty coupled with high inflation and supply chain disruption has forced manufacturers worldwide to find new ways to reduce operating costs and maintain continuous production without sacrificing quality, reliability or safety.
Electrical plant owners face increasing pressure to reduce their carbon footprints and embrace the benefits of digitalisation and automation.
All of which means that accurately monitoring energy consumption has become critical. The most effective way to do that is intelligent motor control (IMC), which centrally integrates, monitors and controls the operation of a number of electronic devices using universal communication protocols.
Intelligent motor control solutions ensure precise, flexible control and measurement of all parameters while providing maximum reliability and protection, and driving an intelligent data hub for predictive maintenance and asset management.
The global market for motor protection and control is forecast to reach US$23 billion by 2029, with rapid growth throughout Asia-Pacific in industries including mining, power generation, fossil fuels, waste water, food production, HVAC and many others.
Optimising energy consumption
“Manufacturers face extraordinary challenges to keep their production lines at peak efficiency while pivoting to ever-changing consumer trends,” said Dipyaman Basu, Product Marketing Director for ABB Australia Smart Buildings and Smart Power. “Even small disruptions can impact product output, supply chains and costs.
“ABB is continuously working to support customers to leverage real-time intelligence to optimise the performances of their equipment, thereby ensuring reliability, maximising product quality, consistency and safety across their facilities.”
In addition, ABB’s solutions help companies understand energy usage period-over-period, identify inefficiencies and optimise energy consumption. They lower costs and emissions while reducing safety risks through remote condition monitoring and predictive maintenance.
Futureproofing technologies
ABB is a global leader in intelligent motor control and protection. The embedded intelligence in its products helps customers futureproof their installations. Evolving technologies mean these products and solutions can enable seamless upgrades to existing installations, reducing the hassle and costs associated with complete system revamps.
As continual upgrades can be made over time, the long-term investment required is less.
ABB has a range of intelligent motor control products across multiple sectors including HVAC, wastewater treatment and machine safety. Its solutions are futureproof, easily upgradeable and have the flexibility to be retrofitted to suit changes in scale.
The major benefits are:
- Continuous operation
With reduced chances of failure, the amount of unnecessary downtime is minimised, leading to higher productivity. In the case of ABB’s Softstarters, the pump cleaning feature helps prevent and solve pump clogging problems and resulting shutdowns, while the embedded wastewater application features help to enhance performance.
- Energy efficiency
ABB’s low voltage motor starting and protection solutions are IE3/IE4 compatible, offering users of high-efficiency motors reduced carbon footprint solutions and long-term power savings.
In HVAC and chiller systems, energy use in the control circuit is typically cut by up to 80 per cent as there’s less heat dissipation and power supply, while temperature rises are smaller.
- Ease of installation, with greater safety
Control panel assembly can take half as much time with ABB’s wide range of easy-to-use accessories and connection sets. This leads to savings on labour costs and reduces the time it takes to get to market.
Using ABB products significantly decreases the design work and the amount of effort needed for commissioning, further driving down the cost of purchasing. ABB solutions are equipped to handle harsher environmental conditions, leading to enhanced equipment and people safety, in additional to prolonging lifetime of the system.
- Integrated advanced control and protection
The ABB Advanced Solution has precise and flexible control with measurement of all parameters and access via flexible communication options. It provides the required reliability and protection for driving an intelligent data hub for predictive applications, maintenance and asset management.
Innovative solutions
ABB’s intelligent motor control solutions can be broken down as follows:
The Essential Solution ensures combinations of core power devices function in a coordinated way, guaranteeing continuous operation and ease of installation. In addition, it typically covers the requirements of standalone machinery such as pumps, compressors and fans.
The Enhanced Solution provides enhanced control, safety and monitoring functions for applications in the discrete automation field. For air-cooled chiller systems, it includes additional protection functions such as temperature monitoring, thermistor motor protection relay, under- or overvoltage monitoring relay and safety relays.
The Advanced Solution includes integrated and future-ready motor protection, flexible motor control, fault diagnostics and maintenance schedules. It supports all major communication protocols.
“There’s so much innovation taking place across the industry, but ABB has remained at the cutting edge of pioneering new solutions to every challenge that presents itself,” Basu said.
Register for a free webinar, Greater Efficiency With Intelligent Motor Control, on 23 April.