Hoisting of equipment and goods in production or in transportation is a common function across all heavy industries, performed by cranes. And the drive to improve safety in working conditions and efficiency in operations mean that cranes increasingly contribute to improve heavy industries.
Some of the most common industrial cranes are overhead travelling cranes and gantry cranes. In these cranes the load is suspended from a gripping device by cables, and acts like a pendulum. These swaying loads are a safety hazard and place additional stress on the crane structure. The sway control solution is to regulate the motion closely using an AC drive on the input to the electric motor.
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VACON® NXP drives with integrated sensorless control functionality enhance productivity and safety by avoiding sway in cranes.
Improve uptime and get the most out of your AC drives and VFD applications, with DrivePro® services for VLT® and VACON® drives.
Hybridization is increasingly influencing the crane sector, using energy storage to optimize energy supply.
Using a combination of diesel and battery-stored electrical energy creates opportunities to shave peak loads, optimize use of cheaper off-peak power, and maintain operation in the event of power cuts.
Danfoss drives help to ensure excellent open-loop crane performance without encoders. Travel and hoist commissioning is simple. Droop control equalizes torque between the two motors operating in parallel. Closed loop control offers even better crane dynamics. Danfoss offers flexible encoder interfaces for broad component choice.
For closed loop operation, the master drive is speed controlled and transmits a torque reference to the follower drives via analog output or fieldbus. The follower drive works in torque control mode and master drive works in speed control mode.
Danfoss drives prevent load shocks at start and stop of lifting.
For vertical motion, Danfoss provides smooth torque ramping to ensure that the load is held, stopped, raised and lowered in a perfectly safe mode at all times.
VLT® drives are delivered as standard with the Safe Stop (Safe Torque Off) function in compliance with ISO13849-1 PLd and SIL 2, according to IEC61508/IEC62061. Expand with options from the factory, or post-installation with simple plug-and-play, to perform complex tasks using SS1, SLS, SMS, safe jog mode and more.
Integrated sensorless anti-sway software takes account of the hoist and load type to ensure the load remains stable and does not sway. The anti-sway function improves safety, reduces cycle time to improve productivity and requires no special operator skills.
The braking energy of a crane is traditionally lost as heat. However, by capturing this braking energy using a regenerative drive, it can be put to work to improve energy efficiency. Danfoss AC drives are available with Active Front End (AFE) for regenerative capacity.
Easy commissioning thanks to built-in crane-dedicated features
Smooth operation with no jerks or oscillations during startup and ramping
Tandem load balancing for trolley and travel applications, via speed-torque sharing or load drop control
Tandem hoist, synchronizing the shaft speed between two hoists
Choice of open loop or closed loop control
Mechanical brake for smooth operation and optimal safety
Controlled stop in the event of dropping a load
Integrated crane safety software ensures legal compliance with functional safety STOP functions: Safe Torque Off, SS1, SS2, SQS and more
Anti-sway control to ensure highly stable transverse movement
Danfoss Drives offers personal advice and application design from our drives experts to support OEMs, system integrators and industrial users. We also provide customized solutions for hardware and software that enable seamless integration and a range of features that optimize the total system.
Danfoss Drives is a leading supplier of AC drives for the cranes industry. More than 100,000 Danfoss drives are providing effortless speed control and optimized efficiency for the smallest chain hoists up to the largest mobile crane vessels with lifting capacities up to 10,000 tons.
When designing new cranes, Danfoss Drives is able to draw on years of experience related to applications and AC-drives technology to support the development.
Cooperation in analyzing the operation of drives using test cranes, and optimization of the controls, performance and system as a whole, are important areas of our expertise. And our wide service offering covers scheduled maintenance requirements and optimization of modernization packages.
Danfoss Drives’ engineering support and service teams are capable of assisting system integrators and crane manufacturers at all stages of projects from cabinet building to commissioning. Covering the full lifetime of the crane, our key services include technical support, start-up, maintenance, spare parts, upgrades and training.
Dedicated application software for mechanical braking enables excellent hoisting speed accuracy, overhead crane safety, and brake control at Elgi Mukand.
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VACON® NXP and VACON® NXS AC drives feature dedicated application software for mechanical braking which enables excellent speed accuracy and brake control.
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