Nord Drivesystems has expanded the functional safety capabilities of its Nordac On decentralised frequency inverter, adding new safety features for automated production environments.
“The latest generation of Nordac On extends the functional safety of our decentralised drive electronics, providing additional safety functions for automation applications,” says the company.
In addition to ‘safe torque off’ and ‘safe stop 1’, the Nordac On now incorporates the safe motion functions ‘safety limited speed’, ‘safe maximum speed’ and ‘safe speed monitor’. Together, these functions provide both safe standstill and fail-safe speed control for drive systems.
The future version of the decentralised frequency inverter can be integrated into fail-safe industrial Ethernet applications using either ProfiSafe or FSoE, with the required Industrial Ethernet protocol selected during commissioning. Stand-alone operation is also supported.
“The safe digital inputs and outputs allow fail-safe peripheral components and functions to be incorporated, including emergency stop buttons, safety door switches and photoelectric sensors,” says the company. “Two safe one-channel digital inputs can be combined into one safe two-channel digital input, while two safe outputs can be combined into one safe two-channel output.”
Designed for modern production environments, the decentralised Nordac On features a compact design with full plug-in capability. Its plug-and-play functionality reduces wiring requirements while providing a maintenance-friendly and economical installation.
The unit also incorporates onboard PLC capability for PLC and drive-related functions. It can process data from connected sensors and actuators, initiate control sequences, and communicate drive and application data to a control centre, networked components or cloud storage.
“Nordac On combines decentralised drive technology with integrated functional safety, helping simplify installation while supporting safe automation environments,” says the company. Nordac On is available in power ratings from 0.37kW to 3.7kW.
