Driving quality with Q2A tailored application drive

The Q2A is also customisable to the customer’s application. The solution combines a space and cost saving design with many helpful features to offer system integrators, OEMs, and end users a high performance yet easy to use drive.

The new Q2A Tailored Application Drive from Omron is the first in a new family of products designed to meet the demands of system integrators, OEMs, and end users. It minimises hardware footprint and cost, reduces engineering and commissioning time, and provides improved performance for different motor types. The entire application workflow can be optimised, from design, through commissioning, to maintenance and fine-tuning for production.

Design benefits begin with up to 45% footprint reduction compared to the previous solution, together with side by side mounting. The built in EMC filter, DC reactor and braking chopper, together with integrated functional safety (STO SIL3) and embedded 24VDC control board power supply offer simplicity and significant cost savings. The Q2A has been robustly designed to ensure reliable operation in harsh environments, with coated PCBs to protect the electronics from dust or humidity.

The Q2A series delivers improved motor performance because it can control different motor types in open and closed loops, including voltage vector control. Delivering better efficiency than other drive methods, voltage vector control is also easier and quicker to set up than current vector driving.

It also provides communications flexibility with support for many Ethernet based communication options such as EtherCAT used by Omron’s Sysmac system, as well as EtherNet/IP, PROFINET, and POWERLINK. It also offers cost effective network integration because up to five Q2A drives can be used with only a single communication card. And a built in USB connection allows the Q2A drive series to be programmed from a PC, without needing to be connected to an external power supply, making commissioning easy.

A variety of useful and time saving features of the Q2A drive add to the ease of commissioning. A Graphic Development Environment provides fast application customisation, while a built in wizard function reduces set up time and eliminates the risk of setting wrong parameters. The settings are saved via an automatic back up function and can be copied to an SD card and transferred to additional drives.

By tracking performance data, the Q2A supports preventative maintenance by ensuring components, are replaced in time. Error analysis is aided by detailed traceability that gives the exact time of events and how many times they occurred, together with parameter data. The data can be saved onto a micro SD card for trace recording. In addition, the embedded power supply keeps the control system active even if the main 400V supply is lost, allowing any issues to be investigated.

In combination with regenerative power units such as the D1000 and R1000, the Q2A drive series supports regenerative applications, re-using energy for other applications within the same installation.

Alberto Fuentes, European Drive Product Marketing Manager, stated: “Our Q2A inverter is driving quality by delivering high performance and flexibility in a simple program-deploy-go solution that can be optimised for any application. What’s more, the highest quality manufacturing combined with protective measures ensure the Q2A gives ten years of 24/7 failure-free operation for complete peace of mind.”