Direct-Industrial Appear In Drives and Controls Magazine

Check out this month's edition of Drives and Controls Magazine to find out how Direct-Industrial designed and built a Jet Engine Test Rig for a leading Aerospace company.

Pixsys release new TCT201 - Timer/Counter 48x4

Pixsys have announced the TCT101 which is now available to pre-order from Direct-Industrial.com

The unit has the same features and operating modes of the TCT101 (size 32x74mm) are now available in TCT201 in the standard box 48x48mm as requested by several customers.

Brief summary of main technical data:

• Dual display 4digits
• Power supply extended range 24...230Vac/Vdc
• 2 relay outputs 8A resistive
• Frontal extraction of electronics
• Memory card for quick setting
• Optional setting on PC by Labsoftview

Ordering codes

> TCT201-1ABC Timer - 5 operating modes

> TCT201-2ABC Counter / Flowmeter

Device will be ready for delivery by the end of June 2010.Pre order today

5 Facts About DC Drives

Our good friends at Sprint Electric have recently written a short article with 5 interesting facts about DC Drives. 

The main point of the article is that the DC drives market is still very much alive and well is often obscured by myths created in aggressive promotion of the AC market. So without further delay let's get some facts straight:

Fact #1

A modern DC drive incorporates state of the art programming, networking and i/o technologies that are not available in most AC drives.

Fact #2

DC drives can provide high performance, 4-quadrant, regenerative control that is not possible from most AC drives.

Fact #3

The heat dissipated from a DC drive is less than a half of the heat wasted in an equivalent AC drive.

Fact #4

Brushes will last for many years in a properly rated and installed DC motor.

Fact #5

When refurbishing an old drive system it is typically much more cost effective to use a modern networked DC drive than to convert to AC.

Fact #6

You can buy new and refurbished DC drives from Direct-Industrial.com. We are an official stocking distrubutor for Sprint electric but have a wide range of dc drives from other OEMs available for immediate dispatch.

Control Techniques Launch Guide to Softstarts

Our good friends at Control Techniques have released a free engineering guide to Soft starters. The guide outlines the principle benefits of using soft starters compared to other electro-mechanical start methods and the advantages & disadvantages of the various soft start methods. The guide also provides guidance on selecting the correct soft start for your application. 

The guide can be downloaded from the Control Techniques website.  

If you have any questions or would like to order a new Control Techniques softstart please contact a member of our sales for a free no obligation quote.

More Siemens Parts

Just purchased 36 control cabinets of Siemens SIMATIC S7-300 parts from a manufacturing site in Ireland. The parts will be appearing on the website in the coming days.

Please contact us if you would like to convert your excess stock into cash. 

Price Revision

Hello,

The Blog News has been on the back burner for the past few weeks. We are currently reviewing all our prices and will be updating the price list towards the end of next week.

Upgrading replacing Control Techniques Dominax

What was the Control Techniques DominAx? 

The DominAx series was a digital AC motor speed control manufactured by Control Techniques UK . It was available in several models that could control 3-phase motors from 1 to 15HP. The input voltage ranged 380 to 480 VAC +/- 10% , three phase. The Dominax was based on the Control Techniques CD range of drives. The drive was designed in "bookshelf" format in order to optimize cubic space when utilised in multi drive systems.

Although the DominAx was manufactured and sold by Control Techniques it is not unusual to find them rebadge as Leroy Somer or Honeywell drives. In fact some drives, particularly those rebadge by large OEMs, did not feature the Control Techniques name or the DominAx brand.

 

Key Features of the Dominax Range 

• Dominax drives are designed to operate standard 3 phase induction motors and special high frequency motors
• Digital Control of output bridge by micro processor and custom designed ASIC
• Insulated gate bi polar transistor (IGBT) inverter outout bridge for high speed switching and low power consumption
• Choice of 4 PWM output switching frequencies to match applications
• Choice of three upper limits of variable output frequencies up to 380hz maximium
• Maxium flux on all speeds
• Programmable voltage boost for additional torque at low speeds
• Acceleration and Deceleration with programmable ramps
• Slip Compensation for improved speed holding in open loop speed control

Options for Existing Dominax User 

Although the Dominax was cutting edge when first released into the market place the features on this drive can now be found in most drives from leading OEM such as Allen Bradley, Siemens Automation, Telemecanique and Mitsubsihi. At direct-industrial we recommend the Control Techniques Commander SK as a direct replacement for the DominAX. The Control Techniques Commander SK series can replace the Dominax functionality and are state-of-the-art Digital Drives that are smaller, offer many more internal features ( featuring a built-in PLC capability ) and can be setup using your Laptop PC. No pots to adjust or jumpers to set. Best of all the Software for the Commander SK is free ! As an official distributor of Control Techniques, Direct-Industrial.com is able to offer support to existing Dominax users looking to upgrade to the latest generation digital ac drives. For customers who cannot upgrade we can offer a fixed price repair service