Siemens Combines Synchronous Reluctance Motors With High-performance Converters

With the modular system consisting of Sinamics S120 low-voltage converters and Simotics synchronous reluctance motors from Siemens, customer-specific high-performance machine concepts can be implemented quickly and flexibly in industrial machine and plant construction. For this purpose, the synchronous reluctance motors offer an optimized vector control and the generator operation optimized with regard to energy efficiency and dynamics, as well as safety functionalities and technology functions. Profibus and Profinet interfaces enable integration into the Totally Integrated Automation automation landscape.

With reluctance motors, the system costs are lower than with permanently excited synchronous or asynchronous motors. For example, in the partial load range, the drive system with a reluctance motor is significantly cheaper in energy terms than the asynchronous motor. The return on investment from high-performance low-voltage converters and reluctance motors was achieved in less than twelve months.

Compared to asynchronous motors of the same power, reluctance motors have a considerably higher efficiency in the partial load range. Thanks to the synchronous principle, the speed remains constant and an encoderless vector control ensures optimal operating behavior. Both properties simplify the drive train control. The low moment of inertia of the motor in connection with the optimized vector control enables short ramp-up times. In terms of torque jumps, the behavior is comparable to that of permanently excited synchronous motors and allows even safety-relevant applications to be braked quickly. (ud)