ABB Industry Oy CHARGE RELAY 3AFE

Component AC Operating Instruction chargere.doc

Dept. Project Status Date Author Status Revision Page
APPROVED/KAREINEN MATTI
APPLE 10.Sep 2001 KAREINEN MATTI A 1/5

Product: ACS140 400V series, pre-charging circuitry.

Symptoms:

Unit is clearing fuses or there are nuisance trips like FL4 .

Normal situation
In Picture 1 are shown the currents measured from input phases when the supply voltage is
connected. The voltage level was 515V. Maximum current spike was about 4A.

Picture 1 Input currents when the supply voltage is connected

ABB Industry Oy CHARGE RELAY 3AFE
Component AC Operating Instruction chargere.doc
Dept. Project Status Date Author Status Revision Page
APPROVED/KAREINEN MATTI
APPLE 10.Sep 2001 KAREINEN MATTI A 2/5

Picture 2 Measurements from the intermediate circuitry.

Normal start up situation Vin 400 VAC. CH1 current of DC- link measured from UDC- - diode
bridge. CH2 voltage across the charge resistor. CH3 voltage across DC link’s caps.

In normal charging situation the maximum current spike in intermediate circuitry is measured
once the charge relay is controlled on is on the level of 14 - 17 A as seen from picture 2.
ABB Industry Oy CHARGE RELAY 3AFE
Component AC Operating Instruction chargere.doc
Dept. Project Status Date Author Status Revision Page
APPROVED/KAREINEN MATTI
APPLE 10.Sep 2001 KAREINEN MATTI A 3/5

Problem situation

Worst case situation is once the supply is disconnected, the relay in pre-charging circuitry is
controlled off (DC voltage level is low enough) but the internal power supply is still on as well as
the CPU is running. Once the power is connected back during a such situation causes a very
high current spike in a moment when the relay is controlled on.

Picture 3 Worst case situation Vin 528 VAC, Power on right after the charge relay has been
controlled off. CH1 current of DC- link measured from UDC- - diode bridge.CH2
voltage across the charge resistor. CH3 voltage across DC link’s caps.

If this kind of situation is repeated several times it causes contacts of the relay in the pre-
charging circuitry to weld together. Once it happens during the power on situation the pre-
charging resistors are not limiting the inrush current. This is clearing fuses or MCB’s .

In normal charging situation “cold start”the time CPU is initialising itself is making the difference
between the worst case situation.
ABB Industry Oy CHARGE RELAY 3AFE
Component AC Operating Instruction chargere.doc
Dept. Project Status Date Author Status Revision Page
APPROVED/KAREINEN MATTI
APPLE 10.Sep 2001 KAREINEN MATTI A 4/5

Picture 4 UDC voltage when the power supply have connected off and again on

The critical duration of the power brake is 10 sec. After that the internal power supply switches
off and there is not faced a problematic situation.

Fix of symptom:
There is added 500 ms delay before the charge relay is controlled on. During this period the
voltage in DC link is rising high enough and the current spike in a moment once the relay is
controlled on remains low enough.

Picture 5 500ms delay added

Finished goods
ABB Industry Oy CHARGE RELAY 3AFE
Component AC Operating Instruction chargere.doc
Dept. Project Status Date Author Status Revision Page
APPROVED/KAREINEN MATTI
APPLE 10.Sep 2001 KAREINEN MATTI A 5/5

This symptom is not causing any actions for finished goods in stocks.

The recommendation for power on / off cycles is 3 cycles in 5 minutes period, after that there
must be stable situation. This is to prevent the pre-charge resistors to over heat.

During the endurance tests done with a 30 sec on/ 30 sec off cycles there has been run more
than 15 000 charge cycles without problems in all ACS140 series products. Test were done with
maximum allowed supply voltage ( 480 VAC + 10% and 230 VAC + 10%)