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Article: Tips save energy with variable frequency inverters
- Article from:
- Chemical Engineering Progress
- Article date:
- October 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright American Institute of Chemical Engineers Oct 2001. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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Energy conservation is the talk of the day due to ever increasing energy costs. In a process plant, variable speed drives (VSDs), i.e., mechanical speed varia- tors and hydraulic torque converters, have been used with induction motors to save energy. This is because induction motors, while the workhorses of industry, have a serious limitation; they are essentially constant-speed machines, and are inefficient when used with equipment that needs to operate at different speeds.
In mechanical speed variators,, an electric motor powers equipment via a belt. The motor pulley and the pulley of the driven device, mounted on splined shafts, have specially shaped and spring-loaded discs. Splined ...