Allen Bradley Alternative

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We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Customers of Precision Electric who use Allen Bradley products typically get frustrated when they don’t get support or more frequently, have to sign an expensive contract to get support. Eventually these customers seek alternative products for their applications. Precision Electric recommends Parker/SSD drive solutions for customers looking for an alternative to Allen Bradley. We have been a systems integrator as well as certified repair facility for Parker/SSD products since 1996.

Parker offers a full range of drives from stepper, compact and high performance servo, AC variable speed, high current output DC to panel mounted drives. Parker industry leading drives include Sensorless, Vector and Microstepping options. Parker drives are suitable for speed, torque or position control and are available in power ranges from fractional to over 2,000 hp.

Drive product offerings from Parker:

  • Open loop V/Hz speed control for induction motors
  • Sensorless vector and closed loop flux vector control
  • Brushless AC and DC servo control
  • Programmable servo drives
  • Stepper and microstepper
  • Field bus and ethernet based motion bus
  • Packaged systems in NEMA enclosure panels

Parker power electronics are used in a wide variety of markets ranging from industrial to life sciences and are supported by a highly technical distribution network around the globe.

  • Thousands of standard drive configurations
  • Custom engineered drives designed to your OEM application
  • Global manufacturing and service with local application support

Parker drives products carry international industrial approvals, including UL, cUL and CE marking.

Parker drive/controllers support numerous industry-standard fieldbus protocols including:

  • CANOpen
  • Ethernet IP
  • Ethernet Powerlink
  • Ethercat
  • Profibus
  • Modbus and others

Products are available as standalone packages or PC-bus cards. Call or email for further information.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

 

 

Mitsubishi Will Build SUV At Illinois Plant

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CHAMPAIGN, Ill. (AP) — Mitsubishi Motors North America said Friday that it will begin production of a new SUV crossover at its plant in Normal, Illinois, next year, promising to keep the facility open less than a month after its 1,100 union employees agreed to wage concessions.

The state of Illinois said it will give the company $29 million in tax incentives as it begins production of the new Outlander Sport.

The new vehicles, which Mitsubishi started making late last year, will replace four existing models now made at the Normal plant that will be phased out, Mitsubishi Motors North America President Shinichi Kurihara said Friday at the plant.  “Mitsubishi Motors remains fully committed to producing vehicles in Normal,” he said. “We will build vehicles here not just for the United States, but for many nations around the world.”

The facility’s 1,100 union workers in December agreed to cut their pay by $1.67 an hour, a concession Mitsubishi said it needed to keep the plant open. The plant now makes the Galant, Eclipse and Spyder and the Endeavor sport utility vehicle. All four will be phased out over the next few years, though no timetable has been set.

The plant was built in 1988 and has 1,300 employees, about half of whom commute from surrounding communities and as far away as Peoria and Champaign, the company has said.

Like most of the auto industry, Mitsubishi North America has struggled with slow sales. The Cypress, Calif.-based subsidiary of Tokyo’s Mitsubishi Motors Corp. saw its U.S. market share slip to one half of one percent in 2009 — the lowest level since 1985, according to WardsAuto.com, a website that tracks auto industry data.

A key Illinois Democrat used Friday’s announcement as an opportunity to jab at the chorus of critics who have complained that Illinois’ recent income tax increase discourages economic growth. Those critics include leaders in other states, like New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who have openly encouraged businesses to leave Illinois over the higher taxes they’ll pay if they remain.

“Illinois has reformed its pension system, enacted spending limits, recruited and retained key businesses and put itself back on track for stability and prosperity,” state Senate President John Cullerton said. “Compare that to New Jersey where the governor is spending more of the people’s money promoting himself in the Illinois media than he is on his state’s underfunded pension systems.”

Mitsubishi on Friday also said it will loan the state of Illinois what it called a small number of battery-powered electric vehicles to try out as part of the state’s fleet, and will work with the state to try to promote the use of electric vehicles. The company loaned the state of California two cars last year in a similar arrangement.

Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-04/mitsubishi-will-build-suv-at-illinois-plant.html

Industrial Manufacturing Smart Phone Mobile App

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We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

When Invensys Operations Management (IOM) set out earlier this year to develop an industrial “app” for smart phones, the company had a strong idea of what it wanted to do. IOM, the Plano, Texas-based automation supplier, partnered with Sarla Analytics LLC, Barrington, R.I., a supplier of smart phone applications, to develop SmartGlance, a software-as-a-service offering designed to deliver manufacturing intelligence data to smart phones, including Apple iPhones, Apple iPads, Blackberries and Android models.

SmartGlance was introduced in October. But before Invensys brought the SmartGlance offering to market, it turned to its customer council, a group of both large and small users of its products, for input on the app’s features and functions. “We started working with them very early on, asking what kinds of information would be most useful, and how they would want to see it,” says Rob McGreevy, IOM vice president, platforms and applications. One customer, in particular—General Mills—stepped up to provide significant guidance and feedback, McGreevy notes, driving “some very important changes” in the app’s design.

General Mills got its first look at the SmartGlance app early last summer, says Chris Damsgard, senior engineer at the company’s Controls and Information Systems Engineering Group, in Golden Valley, Minn. “Their first pass was on the iPhone. They could show some tabular data and they could do some charting, but that was about it,” recalls Damsgard who does much of General Mills usability work. “So we started thinking about the problems that we have in the manufacturing space and how a mobile app could help us solve those, and we started explaining some of those challenges and problems to Invensys.” The vendor responded positively, making appropriate changes to the app, he says.

One thing that was missing in the early SmartGlance implementation was an alerting function, Damsgard says. While Invensys had started with a “great idea” of delivering real-time manufacturing data via smart phones, “they weren’t really totally catching the use case”—that busy manufacturing users don’t have time to be constantly checking or staring at their smart phones, he explains.

Sometimes, the optimal display approaches weren’t immediately obvious. When General Mills suggested use of color, for example, the SmartGlance developers quickly thought of using red, yellow and green to indicate varying levels of equipment health. But General Mills instead pushed for just a single color to be used—and only when an anomaly occurs.

The red-yellow-green approach would have produced too much visual noise, requiring users to interpret all of the different colors, Damsgard explains. “Why not assume that things are good and shade just the one thing that I need to pay attention to?” he says. “When I open my report, I’ve got this grid of numbers, and I need to be able to go straight to the one that’s messed up, because at that moment, that’s all I care about, so that’s what the single color accomplishes.”

Damsgard anticipates significant payoffs for the project. Even a minute of downtime can amount to large costs for General Mills, he notes, “so the sooner you can get the information into somebody’s hands, the sooner they can react to prevent losses,” he says. At press time, Damsgard was hoping to begin piloting the SmartGlance app with General Mills users by around the end of November.

source:  http://www.automationworld.com/feature-7976

Improving pharmaceutical energy efficiency

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We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.


Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Electric motors and variable speed drives are used throughout the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry to operate HVAC systems, laboratory or bulk manufacturing equipment, such as mixers, pumps, centrifuges and dryers, and to move and operate filling and finishing equipment.

Maintenance can save from 2% to 30% of total motor system energy use in pharmaceutical production. Electric motors and variable speed drives are often sized incorrectly in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry. Ensuring that motors are properly sized, and that oversized motors are replaced, can save 1.2% of total electric motor electricity consumption within one system. Typically whenever peak loads can be reduced, so can motor size.

Replacing an old electric motor with a high-efficiency motor is usually a better choice than rewinding a motor. Currently, there are no quality or efficiency standards for rewinding, this can create motor efficiency to decrease from 2% to 25% after rewinding. If you are thinking about whether to rewind a motor or to replace it with a higher-efficiency model, consider the following prior to making a decision:

  • Never rewind a motor damaged by excessive heat
  • Replace motors that are less than 100 hp and more than 15 years old
  • Replace any motors that have previously been rewound

High-efficiency motors, meeting or exceeding performance criteria published by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), reduce energy losses through improved design, better materials, tighter tolerances and improved manufacturing techniques.

Precision Electric offers several different types of equipment and services to Pharmaceutical manufacturers across the United States. Click here to learn more about the products and services we offer. If you need price and delivery quoted for any of your equipment, let me know.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

 

 

Industrial electrical equipment repair services

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We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Precision Electric technicians and engineers are trained to use the latest technology in testing and repairing your electronic equipment. We have the capability to repair your circuit boards and other related equipment down to component level.

Precision Electric provides 24 hour on-call field services, including Holidays. Our electronic technicians arrive at your facility to trouble-shoot problems, whether they are in your start-up, existing system, or in an individual unit. If your equipment is down our technicians and engineers will trouble shoot the system and get you back up and running as quickly and efficiently as possible. Precision Electric also helps their customers develop and maintain a preventive maintenance program, and show you where and how you can upgrade existing equipment.

Many customers of Precision Electric who are using outdated DC drive and DC motor equipment have chosen to retrofit their existing DC Drive and DC motor system to an AC Vector Drive and AC motor. The AC Vector Drive and Inverter Duty AC motor are much more reliable and readily available for your automation needs. To inquire about these services call or email me direct for more information.

The Precision Electric in-service warranty is a big advantage we have over our competitors. Our in-service warranty begins the same day our customers install equipment rebuilt by Precision Electric, and ends 12 months later. We encourage customers to have all spares rebuilt and ready for immediate replacement; this is to ensure maximum production with little to no downtime.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Variable speed drive energy savings

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We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

The use of variable frequency drives on variable torque loads for the purpose of gaining energy savings is a common application. Variable frequency drives operate as load controls within applications that may accomplish up to 50% reduction in energy costs. In general, an electric motor will turn at a rate proportional to the frequency of the alternating current (AC) applied to it. The majority of Variable Frequency Drives in the market today contain electronic circuitry that converts a 60Hz Line power into direct current. The VFD converts this line power into a pulsed output voltage that duplicates varying alternating current to a desired frequency.

In our ever growing world of technology variable frequency drives have over the past decade allowed to become a cost efficient way to reduce energy costs and increase system efficiencies. Today manufacturers around the globe within a wide range of industries are finding more ways to apply variable frequency drives to their manufacturing equipment.

From past experience, smaller HP drives typically fail in eight years and are more often replaced rather than repaired. Larger HP drives last longer by virtue of repairs that often require replacement circuit boards and other components. After bearing the cost of two or three replacement boards in any one drive, the user often realizes that the drive should have been junked sooner.

For an even more in depth explanation of Variable Frequency Drives go to Wikipedia.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]

Paper and pulp industry

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We’ve Been Servicing the Industrial World Since 1983.

Minimize Your Downtime. Maximize Your Productivity.

Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Processing pulp and paper is a demanding industry. Crushing loads, high humidity, dirt, dust and grime can all take a toll on the best precision equipment in your manufacturing facility. Keep your equipment in prime operating condition by calling us. Or when a breakdown occurs, you can depend on Precision Electric to provide a wide selection of services, products and/or technical support. Our Automation Controls Group was designed to integrate industrial equipment and industrial electronics for paper and pulp manufacturers around the globe, among other industries. Click here to learn more about the Precision Electric Automation Controls Group.

Nearly all servo motors in the paper and pulp manufacturing world can be repaired for a fraction of what it will cost to buy a new one.  We provide expert repairs for all AC servo motors as well as brushless servo motors, and DC servo motor products, and all other related equipment. Click here to learn more about these products and services.

We are a single, reliable source for a wide selection of field and in-shop services. Our objective is to to reduce your operating costs by minimizing downtime, improving efficiency and extending your machinery and equipment life. Precision Electric will work around the clock 24/7 for emergency breakdowns all year round.

All of our repair services are covered by a One-Year comprehensive warranty unless otherwise stated on your quote. Precision Electric has been providing comprehensive AC & DC Servo Motor Repair and CNC & Spindle motor repair services for over 25 years. We routinely repair domestic and foreign motors. To learn more click here.

If you have paper and pulp electrical manufacturing equipment that you want quoted for repair, or if you want a quote to replace something specific, let me know. I am available via email or telephone. When you call Precision Electric a human being will always answer, because we do not believe voicemail is logical in our industry.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

How do I use three phase equipment with single phase power

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This is popular subject here at Precision Electric. We receive emails and calls all the time for customers who have three phase equipment and need to operate this equipment from single phase power. Since most higher horsepower drives only accept three phase input power, many customers are left with little options or alternatives. However, we have a solution for these applications.

Before you derate your drive it is most important to ensure the drive you are using is properly suited for your application. The following are some basic guidlines to help you in determining whether or not your Variable Frequency Drive is suitable for your application:

  1. Gather motor nameplate data including horsepower (HP), current (Amps), motor voltage, input line voltage and power source phase.
  2. Determine which type of drive your application will require. The type will fall under the category of either Volts per Hertz (V/Hz), closed-loop vector, or open-loop vector (Sensorless Vector).

Heres how to derate a three phase drive for single phase power:

  1. Determine the motor horsepower and motor current
  2. Choose drive with a Horsepower higher than the Horsepower of the motor to compensate for the additional input current from the single phase power source.

The simplest formula used for these types of applications is:
The drive max current needs to be greater than that of the motor current. Take your motor current and multiply by 1.73. Then choose a drive that is rated at or higher than the revised current.

Example:

  • Drive rated current > Motor Current Rating * 1.73
  • Drive rated current > 27 Amps * 1.73
  • Drive rated current > 46.71

Now it has been determined this example application will need a 230 VAC 3 phase Volts per Hertz (V/Hz) Variable Frequency Drive with an input current rated at or above 47.0 amps. This particular application would need a 15hp 240V three phase drive to operate on single phase power.

 

Industrial vibration consultants

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If you are looking for a certified industrial vibration analysis consultant you’ve come to the right place. Precision Electric offers vibration analysis services to industrial manufacturing manufacturing industries across the Midwest.  These services consist primarily of collecting data designed to trend equipment performance. Scheduled data collection of this sort exposes deteriorating conditions and allows the scheduling of maintenance prior to equipment failure and forced downtime. With timely preventative maintenance, you can prolong equipment life and prevent catastrophic failure.

Industrial Vibration Analysis Services:

  • Vibration Institute-certified Category III Vibration Analysts
  • vibration condition monitoring and diagnostics in accordance with the requirements of ISO/FDIS 18436-2
  • routine predictive maintenance programs (PMPs) – quarterly, alternate month, or monthly
  • onsite assessment of capital equipment
  • onsite balancing of rotating equipment
  • three sets of CSI® vibration analysis equipment
  • programs that can be designed to support ISO and QS 9000 programs

Precision Electric has offered these services for over 25 years. To learn more about our vibration analysis services please call or email us.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]
Call Toll Free: 1.877.625.2402

Industrial Equipment Repair w/ In Service Warranty

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motor rewindPrecision Electric offers Nationwide industrial equipment repair for manufacturers, OEM’s, end users, and others since 1983. Precision Electric repairs / rebuilds any brand AC and DC Variable Frequency Drives in all horsepower ratings through 1,000 Volts AC / DC. Additional industrial equipment repair services offered by Precision Electric, Inc. include AC / DC Electric Motor Repair from Fractional Horsepower through 1,000 Horsepower.  Custom control cabinet design and manufacture, PLC programming, Servo Motor and Servo Drive Repair, Servo Amplifier Repair, PBC Repair, And Repair of all other related equipment. All repair work performed by Precision Electric is completed in house or on-site for customer convenience. Precision Electric guarantees small motor repair and large motor repair are of equal quality, and all Repair work includes a 1 year In Service Warranty. The Precision Electric In Service Warranty begins when the equipment repaired goes into service to encourage the repair of spare / back up equipment that may be laying around, in non-working condition. This process is most economical for the customer because when spare equipment is needed, the customer has a repaired spare available and no matter how long the item has been sitting, there’s no need to worry about expired warranties. Once the equipment is put into service and functioning, the in service warranty begins.

Precision Electric has a unique repair process that is unlike the competition. Most motor shops function as ‘assembly line’ in their repair processes to cut costs on repair work. Repair work performed by Precision Electric is more successful than the competition by a unique process. The mechanic who starts a repair job at Precision Electric is the same mechanic that finalizes the repair job. This unique repair process holds every mechanic accountable for their performance, and it also assures a repair product that is more reliable than that of the original product from the manufacturer.

Precision Electric industrial equipment repair services include troubleshooting, repair, rebuild, and rewind. Precision Electric is capable of both form-wound coils and random-wound machined coils. Precision Electric industrial equipment repair services also includes all types of AC and DC electric motors, generators, transformers, clutches, brakes, pumps, gearboxes, blowers, fans, shafts, sleeve bearings, and hoist equipment.
General Service offered by Precision Electric:

  • rotary apparatus repair
  • electric motor repair
  • drive repair AC and DC
  • PCB repair
  • servo motor repair
  • servo drive repair
  • mechanical repairs
  • pump repair
  • gearbox repair
  • and all other related products and services.

Industrial Equipment Repair ServicesThe Precision Electric in-service warranty is another advantage we have over our competition. Our in-service warranty begins the same day our customers install equipment rebuilt by Precision Electric, and ends 12 months later.

The Precision Electric in-service warranty gives the customer incentive to keep a spare motor in all areas of production. Precision Electric encourages customers to have all spares rebuilt and ready for immediate replacement to ensure maximum production with little to no downtime.

Call Precision Electric today for an industrial equipment repair services quote or product replacement quote.

Variable Frequency Drive Information

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Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) are electronic devices used to control the speed of an Alternating Current Motor (AC Motor).  Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) are also commonly known as adjustable frequency drives, adjustable speed drives, AC drives and inverters.
Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) have a wide range of application use that include, but are not limited too:
Variable Air Volume Systems
Circulating Pumps for Hot Water Heating Systems
Chilled Water Circulating Pumps
Geothermal Heat Pump Systems
Injection-molding Equipment
Air Compressors
Conveyors
Chillers
Cooling Towers
Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) operate as load controls within these applications that may accomplish up to a 50% reduction in energy costs.  In general, an electric motor will turn at a rate proportional to the frequency of the alternating current (AC) applied to it.  The majority of Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) in the market today contain electronic circuitry that converts a 60Hz Line power into direct current.  The VFD converts this line power into a pulsed output voltage that duplicates varying alternating current to a desired frequency.
Advances in technology over the past decade have allowed for Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) to become a very cost efficient way to reduce energy costs and increase system efficiencies.  More and more companies within a wide range of industries are finding more ways to apply Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs) to their applications.
For an even more in depth explanation of Variable Frequency Drives (VFDs), it is highly recommended that you visit: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variable-frequency_drive

If you have found Precision Electric on the web chances are you need a variable frequency drive replaced, serviced, or maybe you don’t even know what a variable frequency drive is.

Variable Frequency Drives are electronic devices used to control the speed of an Alternating Current Motor; typically these AC electric motors are used for industrial manufacturing. Variable Frequency Drives can also be known as inverters, electronic soft start devices, VFDs, adjustable speed drives and/or AC drives.

Variable Frequency Drives have a wide range of application use in several different industries. Here are a few of the more common applications and industries drives are used in:

Variable Frequency Drives operate as load controls within these applications that may accomplish up to 50% reduction in energy costs.  In general, an electric motor will turn at a rate proportional to the frequency of the alternating current (AC) applied to it.  The majority of Variable Frequency Drives in the market today contain electronic circuitry that converts a 60Hz Line power into direct current.  The VFD converts this line power into a pulsed output voltage that duplicates varying alternating current to a desired frequency.

Advances in technology over the past decade have allowed for Variable Frequency Drives to become a cost efficient way to reduce energy costs and increase system efficiencies.  Today manufacturing around the globe within a wide range of industries are finding more ways to apply Variable Frequency Drives to their manufacturing equipment.

For an even more in depth explanation of Variable Frequency Drives go to Wikipedia.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]

AC Tech mc series manual & Lenze smvector drive

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If you need any AC Tech variable frequency drive literature, everything you’re looking for can be found right here on our website. Simply click the Manuals tab in the top right corner of this page. The following AC Tech literature can be found here: on our website.

SMV Series
Sub Micro Series
MC Series
MCH Series

All of the literature that AC Tech has available on their website, is available on our website. Precision Electric also has digital documentation available for Lenze products, Baldor products, and other manufacturers’ literature whom we work with. If you need specific documentation and you cannot find it elsewhere, send me an email request.

Precision Electric service fliers, brochures, line cards and other related documentation is available here on our website via PDF. If you click the Capabilities tab in the top right corner of this page you will be able to download these files. If you do not find the information you need on our website, email me, and I’ll do my best to help.

Ryan Chamberlin
Inside Sales, Customer Support
[email protected]