Reduction of versions Achieve much more with much less

TCO
VariantReduction
Digitalisation

Bargteheide 2023-03-13 2 min.

Large intralogistics projects for airports or parcel centres must reconcile several competing requirements. For drive technology, NORD DRIVESYSTEMS therefore relies on a comprehensive TCO approach.

The life cycle costs of drive solutions (Total Cost of Ownership/TCO) include all the costs which are incurred – from purchase and commissioning, use and maintenance, up to disposal. The two major factors to reduce the TCO are energy consumption and the number of drive versions used. However, there is a conflict of objectives between the approaches of energy efficiency optimisation and version reduction. Planning a system with drives that are designed for the most energy-efficient operating point leads to optimal investment costs and motors operating comparatively energy-efficiently, independent of their efficiency class. In return, many drive versions must be managed and serviced during the system’s entire life cycle.

Version reduction: Standardisation, efficiency, cost optimisation

While a drive concept mainly focusing on saving energy costs leads to a large number of versions, a version reduction has exactly the opposite goal, namely to provide the required torques and speeds in a system with as few different drive versions as is economically feasible.

The problem of designing a system under real conditions is more difficult to solve. Conveyor belts in airports, warehouses and parcel centres are often designed for the expected maximum load and with corresponding safety factors. This results in drive systems that are oversized for the application. In real operation, however, such systems reach the maximum load only with a small proportion of the load to be conveyed. As a result of such designs, the drives only operate in the partial load range for most of the time.

One version is a combination of gear unit, motor and frequency inverter that vary in size and gear ratio. Versions may be reduced by using only one combination of geared motor and frequency inverter for a specific load and speed range. Controlled via the frequency inverter, this drive unit can then cover the required operating points for lower performance requirements or other speed ranges.

A balanced combination of variant reduction and energy efficiency can result in high TCO reductions..

Synchronous motors with energy efficiency IE5+

NORD drives with synchronous motors have particular strengths here, as the efficiency does not significantly decrease – compared to asynchronous motors in the partial load range. The new IE5+ motor technology is about 15% more economical under full load. The longer the part of the drives’ partial load operation, the greater the energy savings through drive selection, and the better the performance of the modern permanent magnet, efficiency class IE5+ synchronous motors. In addition to the improved energy efficiency of system solutions, the quality of the drive electronics' control is also an important factor.

Matched system solutions from NORD DRIVESYSTEMS, consisting of geared motor, frequency inverter and application-specific parametrisation and programming, help to achieve an optimal system efficiency. Version reduction minimises administrative costs, and enables streamlined production, logistics, storage, and service processes.

The new IE5+ motor generation combines the benefits of the modular system with the possibilities of reducing versions. 95% of all drive applications in intralogistics can be covered by IE5+ motors up to 2.2 kW in a single housing size with two or three selected gear unit sizes up to 250 Nm and a few frequency inverter versions. Each solution will be individually tailored to each customer and, among other things, would feature the following advantages:

Motor can be operated worldwide
Utilisation of the high system overload capacity
Large adjustment range
Explicitly tailored to the relevant load range
Compact installation space with high power density

Reducing the number of drive versions with the DuoDrive

The synchronous motor technology from NORD DRIVESYSTEMS is brought into perfection by integrating motor and gear unit into one housing, as implemented in the patented DuoDrive. Important characteristics of the DuoDrive are – apart from the high system efficiency – the consistent version reduction with a smooth, unventilated and compact design. Many wear-prone parts are omitted and the maintenance efforts are reduced. The DuoDrive can be mounted without any adaptations in various installation positions. This leads to an additional reduction in the number of versions in intralogistics projects. The compact housing dimensions have another advantage: In the axial direction, DuoDrive has a significant flatter design than competitor products and thus provides for a narrow aisle width in conveyor technology installations. As the geared motor power can be scaled in the same design without modifying the outer dimensions, plant layout modifications are not required for power adjustments.

Optimal compromise between energy efficiency and version reduction

Please also consider: In order to cover as many applications as possible with a single version, the reduction of versions sometimes leads to a deliberate overdimensioning of some drives. However, the greater the distance the drive has from its optimum operating point, the lower its efficiency and thus energy efficiency. This inevitably increases the energy consumption.

When reducing the number of versions, project costs tend to rise slightly as larger drives are used in some cases, which leads to additional costs compared to customised dimensioning. In return, however, the operator benefits from optimised operation of his system and significant cost savings in the areas of administration, service and spare parts stocking over the entire service life of the drives. The system integrator also saves costs, for example in engineering, through a systematic version reduction.

The goal, however, is not to reduce versions as far as possible since project costs can escalate above a certain threshold. In addition, a small number of versions leads to reduced efficiency of the drives used due to more frequent overdimensioning. It is therefore important for projects to find the optimum mix of the version number-dependent costs for investment, operation (administration, service, spare parts stocking) and energy. A balanced combination of version reduction and energy efficiency can lead to high TCO reductions. Drive systems, that are included in NORD DRIVESYSTEMS modern range of high efficiency products, unite the advantages of both optimisation strategies.

Energy efficiency: How drive technology helps to reduce energy costs

According to studies, the consumption of electric drives amounts to up to 70 percent of the entire energy consumption in industry. This is not only a significant cost factor – it also provides a huge optimisation and savings potential. NORD DRIVESYSTEMS helps its customers to use this potential.

DriveElectronics
NORD
DuoDrive
EnergyEfficiency

Bargteheide 2023-01-18 2 min.

Our goal is to reduce the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO). These include all costs associated with the purchase, operation and recycling of a drive system. By using highly efficient technology in combination with a consistent version reduction and standardisation, a significant optimisation of life cycle costs is possible.

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Modular NORD Range of Products for Complete Drive Solutions from a Single Source

For more than 45 years, NORD DRIVESYSTEMS has been a renowned supplier of solutions for almost all industry sectors requiring conveyor technology. Our drive components and systems are indispensable wherever objects have to be moved because all movement requires drives – as efficient and safe as possible.