The average life of a variable speed drive (VSD) is around 15 years, but some would take issue with this assertion.

As manufacturing grows in your plant the more reliant we become on sensors and actuators. But without any clear communication from these small and simple devices, processes can experience vast periods of downtime while the engineer tries to work out which sensor has failed and why.

PID closed loop control or proportional-integral-derivative control is a useful software tool that can be used within an ABB Variable Speed Drive. But what exactly is it?

At a site level we understand that the maintenance team are usually over stretched, which asks the question “Are the variable speed drives maintained correctly within the manufacturing process?”; unfortunately, we find they aren’t very often. On many occasions they are just left alone to produce car components, bake bread or whatever the process may be. What happens in the event of a breakdown; the response ranges from absolute panic to something more measured.

Uninterruptible Power Supplies, or commonly known as UPS’s, are a vital component to most sites to ensure that during a power disruption, your critical plant is backed up with battery power. This beggars the question, are your sites Uninterrupted Power Supply’s Winter Ready?