Vincotech inside - Vitruvian relies on flowPIM® 0 + PFC modules
MOTION CONTROL APPLICATIONS are at the core of Vincotech’s expertise
Embedded drive systems integrate drives and electric motors to reduce the space occupancy thanks to their compact and hermetical design. In embedded drives the overall system’s size, cost, and time-to-market can be slashed by considerably increasing the level of integration.
MOST RECENT APPLICATION with Vincotech modules: Vitruvian
Vitruvian is a unique workout equipment that uses adaptive technology.
Unlike other motor drive applications, Vitruvian uses a motor to create a counter force to opposing the work being performed by the user. For example, the athlete works to pull the cables up, while the motor opposes this force and tries to pull the cables down. Typical motor applications use the motor’s torque to overcome forces such as gravity and friction to perform a desired task such as moving air, driving a compressor or lifting an elevator.
Another feature of this application is the complex monitoring and control of the motors used in this product. Monitoring the athlete’s selected force level and sensing the force on the cables requires a more complex switching pattern to be generated by the product’s controller than the patterns for typical motor drive applications.
It is interesting to mention that the inverter section of Vincotech’s module can track this complex switching pattern which is adjusted 40 times a second to produce the proper voltage levels and frequency waveforms for the motors.
These adjustments to the motor’s output voltage and frequency are described as follows:
AI reads one’s motion 1000 times per second, thus knowing exactly when to increase or reduce the load.
The weight is generated by motors and drives which run using sophisticated algorithms. The algorithms are high speed at 40hz, adjusting the weight about 40 times per second based on your lifting. It is very smooth as humans can’t typically notice more than 10-20 adjustments per second.
Finally, Vitruvian’s application requires the module to experience a large number of power cycles similar to elevator drives and welding applications. In the Vitruvian application the module is expected to power cycle the motor ~30 times a minute which is more than a typical elevator drive application. Constant power cycling is a harsh operating condition for modules because it causes many heating/cooling cycles for the semiconductors in the module.
VINCOTECH inside
Summarizing, the use of Vincotech’s flowPIM® 0 + PFC power module in the Vitruvian application shows:
- Versatile application possibilities
- Ability to track complex switching patterns
- Operating under harsh operation conditions
VINCOTECH inside: flowPIM® 0 + PFC
Vitruvian uses flowPIM® 0 + PFC which consists of 3 elements: Converter + PFC + Inverter.
This deeply integrated power module with active power factor correction circuits has great benefits:
- Deeply integrated to save up to 20% space on the PCB
- Supports external gate drive for far greater flexibility in PCB design
- Open emitter configuration in the inverter stage for full motor control
- Active fast-switching PFC on board boosts efficiency
➤ flowPIM® 0 + PFC products
➤ More about Embedded Drives from Vincotech