The Vacon 3000 drive can be configured for 2-8 megawatt (MW) ventilation fans, 1-8 MW ball mills
and 1-3 MW conveyors with multiple motors, as well as other mining applications.

Dan Isaksson, vice president of medium- voltage drives, said all other medium- voltage drives on the market today are prepackaged. “There are some differences between different suppliers, but they are all prepackaged by the supplier with some varying options, but intend to serve all applications in all regions for all customers,” he said. “This is great if you are a manufacturer. Unfortunately, average is not good enough. We need definite-purpose products that serve the real needs of that individual specific end-user in that segment for that application.”

The Vacon 3000 features a fullygraphical user interface; a simplified precharge unit design that needs no precharging resistors and that limits the inrush of current; flexible front-end configuration options, including a diode front-end-based 12-pulse configuration, and an active front-end option for regenerative braking and low harmonics; passive components for the drive system; and inverter units that are compact, robust and liquid-cooled. The drive can be configured for 2- to 8-megawatt (MW) ventilation fans, 1- to 8-MW ball mills, 1- to 6-MW boiler feed water pumps with speeds up to 4,000 rpm, and 1- to 3-MW conveyors with multiple motors. Primary protective functions include detection of torque and power limit, current limit, overcurrent, overvoltage, undervoltage, loss of auxiliary power, loss of communication, and ground fault.

Danfoss is partnering with training and certifying system integrators and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) to market, sell, represent, install, service and maintain the drive systems and products. “We provide this value-added opportunity for system integrators and OEMs. We do this by providing a kit—medium-voltage drive core components—to our partners, who then have the ability to provide specific solutions in that specific segment where they are active,” Isaksson said.

Partner engineers will receive tools, support and training, and will be able to access Danfoss services through a dedicated portal, which will ultimately enable a transfer of knowledge and sharing of expertise to and from various sects, said Claudio Baccarelli, medium-voltage drive partner program director. “We are putting together a certification process where we will ensure that our partners will get their engineering staff certified by us. The partners will have access to all of the services we provide online via a portal.” Danfoss is optimistic about its opportunities in the medium-voltage drive market, Baccarelli said. “The market is big, about $2.5 billion globally. We want to help our partners to address part of this market with our product.”