VFD with 20 years life time

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srinivasan

srinivasan

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Bangalore,India
Can anybody suggest make and model of VFD with below specification,

Application - Low voltage.
Lifetime - 20 year.
MTBF - 6 years min
availability - 0.99
Dynamic property as per API
 
srinivasan said:
Can anybody suggest make and model of VFD with below specification,

Application - Low voltage.
Lifetime - 20 year.
MTBF - 6 years min
availability - 0.99
Dynamic property as per API
Click to expand...
On average, capacitors last between 7 and 10 years, but sometimes you get lucky and get 15 out of them. I do not know of any VFD mfr that will certify (without lying) that their VFD will last 20 years, unless they stipulate that the manufacturer will be contracted to provide regular preventative maintenance and component replacement over that time period.

Secondly, obsolescence in component manufacturing is now taking place at such a rapid pace, even that becomes problematic. In many many cases recently, old VFDs have been removed from support contracts simply because the transistor styles are too dramatically changed to be used in older designs, or the mP chips are completely out of production.

Good luck with that.
 
I seen same specification with Allen Bradley power flex 7000 medium voltage....but I could not find for low voltage..even I did not get reply from my supplier s

Sent from my GT-S7582 using Tapatalk
 
srinivasan said:
Can anybody suggest make and model of VFD with below specification,

Application - Low voltage.
Lifetime - 20 year.
MTBF - 6 years min
availability - 0.99
Dynamic property as per API
Click to expand...

I think you would be asking for something that may not be obtainable.

99% availability means it can be down for 88 hours per year. that is not an especially impressive feat.

as another poster suggested though, it will be tough to get a manufacturer to agree to a 20 year lifetime on a VFD. I have run into VFDs that have lasted that long, but a more realistic approach is to expect to replace them periodically.

very few electronic products made 20 years ago have replacement parts available today. I doubt you can get the power sections at all for most VFDs of that vintage short of buying used ones on eBay as spares.

Capacitors are kind of an unknown at this point. Electrolytic capacitors have a finite lifetime. Film capacitors are less afflicted with that issue.
 
If it has any microprocessor based controls (most likely), good luck with it being compatible with any current operating systems or computers in 20 years.
 
srinivasan said:
I seen same specification with Allen Bradley power flex 7000 medium voltage....but I could not find for low voltage..even I did not get reply from my supplier s

Sent from my GT-S7582 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
That is because the PowerFlex 7000 Medium Voltage drive has no power capacitors and does not use transistors. It has a bus inductor as the energy storage device instead of capacitors. The inductor is just copper wound around steel, nothing to fail there. Also as a Current Source Inverter (CSI) it is using power devices called SGCTs that are much much more robust than transistors and even if they fail, they fail shorted just like any thyristor so the drive can continue to run (albeit rough) until it is replaced.

Nobody is using CSI technology for Low Voltage drive any longer though, the component cost is significantly higher than transistor based VSI (Voltage Source Inverter) drives.
 
petersonra said:
I think you would be asking for something that may not be obtainable.

99% availability means it can be down for 88 hours per year. that is not an especially impressive feat.

as another poster suggested though, it will be tough to get a manufacturer to agree to a 20 year lifetime on a VFD. I have run into VFDs that have lasted that long, but a more realistic approach is to expect to replace them periodically.

very few electronic products made 20 years ago have replacement parts available today. I doubt you can get the power sections at all for most VFDs of that vintage short of buying used ones on eBay as spares.

Capacitors are kind of an unknown at this point. Electrolytic capacitors have a finite lifetime. Film capacitors are less afflicted with that issue.
Click to expand...
99% availability and 6 years MTBF also is there.
 
Jraef said:
That is because the PowerFlex 7000 Medium Voltage drive has no power capacitors and does not use transistors. It has a bus inductor as the energy storage device instead of capacitors. The inductor is just copper wound around steel, nothing to fail there. Also as a Current Source Inverter (CSI) it is using power devices called SGCTs that are much much more robust than transistors and even if they fail, they fail shorted just like any thyristor so the drive can continue to run (albeit rough) until it is replaced.

Nobody is using CSI technology for Low Voltage drive any longer though, the component cost is significantly higher than transistor based VSI (Voltage Source Inverter) drives.
Click to expand...
You are right sir. Most of the manufacturers given LV VFD's capacitor life is 4.5 -5 years only. Problem here is, customer specification covers all LV, MV and HV VFDs. So i have to give deviation with proper reason for which is not possible. Thanks.
 
petersonra said:
Capacitors are kind of an unknown at this point. Electrolytic capacitors have a finite lifetime.
Click to expand...
But the Lop can be calculated. Rifa at least give figures for calculating that. Possibly Arcotronics, Itelcond and others do too.

We are not mainstream VFD manufacturers but we do make some from component level (including the PCBs) for special applications.
The design life is 20 years.
 
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