February 2010

®
PlantEngineering.com

ELECTRICALSOLUTIONS
Share the load, reap the benefits
By Edward Tom,
Yaskawa Electric America Inc.

L
oad sharing is generally additional lead
defined as the use of mul- time could prove
tiple prime movers, typically costly.
motors, to operate a common For manufac-
load. It can be found in a vast number turers that choose
of applications including but not lim- to stock a spare
ited to rock crushers, extruders and motor to mini-
conveyors. Load sharing provides a mize downtime
multitude of advantages in a variety in case of motor
of applications. failure, less space
A big benefit of load sharing is the is needed to store
ability to use a combination of small- a smaller motor.
er motors as opposed to one main L a rg e r m o t o r s
large motor, for example two 300 may also require
additional main-
Variable speed control tenance during
storage such as
allows motors to operate turning the rotor
at the optimal point of t o a d i ff e r e n t
resting position
maximum efficiency. on a regular basis
to prevent a flat
hp motors versus one 600 hp motor. spot from form-
This is advantageous because of the ing on the motor
greater availability of the smaller bearings. Depending on configuration and design, multiple
sized motors, which results in faster Load sharing motors can be used to share the load on conveyor
delivery times and more price com- not only confers belts such as this one moving bottles.
petitiveness. a d va n t a g e s i n
Most motor manufacturers stock terms of purchas- Smaller motors spread risk
motors up to 500 hp, so applications ing and maintenance, but also in terms Another advantage of using smaller
requiring larger sizes typically need of simpler design and reduced down- stock motors in a load sharing design
specially built motors with longer lead time. – as opposed to one large motor –
times. In an emergency situation, this arises when configuring how and
ELECTRICALSOLUTIONS
Circuit
Breaker unlike when a single and much larger
Contactor motor needs to be upsized.
Because load sharing uses multiple
motors, it’s often possible to operate at
a reduced capacity if one of the motors
Overload Overload Overload Overload fails. In this situation, the remaining
functional motors are used to power
the system with only a slight reduction
in motive force.
Motor 1 Motor 2 Motor 3 Motor 4 Contrast this with a single motor
application where a motor failure
results in downtime and a complete
loss of productivity until the motor
is repaired or replaced. Load sharing
offers significant advantages, but care
Rotational power to
must be taken during design.
shared mechanical load
Image courtesy of Yaskawa Electric America Inc. Best practices
for design
Fig. 1. Starting multiple motors across the line with a single contactor, and with a Though load sharing offers substantial
dedicated overload for protection of each motor, enables power to be applied to advantages, it can increase complexity
all motors at once with a single operation. However, this arrangement results in because multiple motors are employed.
high motor inrush current. Motors must be properly configured and
coordinated to distribute the load equal-
where the motors are mounted. It’s Depending on the design of the ly, otherwise the motors can oppose or
often easier to locate and design a machine and the components used, fight. Although maintenance of a small-
mounting space for two smaller it’s often possible to easily increase er motor is less than that required of a
motors as opposed to one larger the motive force with a load sharing larger motor, there are multiple motors
motor. Examples include multiple arrangement. This can be as simple as to maintain.
motors mounted to a common gear- increasing the power capacity of one or When implementing a load shar-
box in an extruder, or the distribution more of the motors attached to a com- ing configuration with ac induction
of the motors throughout a conveyor mon gearbox. This can often be done motors, there are several methods that
system. without the need of a major retrofit, can be used to operate and control the
motors. The simplest and most inex-
pensive method is to power all the
motors across the line.
Powering the motors across the line
can be handled via a single large con-
Circuit Circuit Circuit Circuit
Breaker Breaker Breaker Breaker tactor with individual overload protec-
tion for each motor (Fig. 1), or with a
Contactor Contactor Contactor Contactor contactor and overload protection for
each motor (Fig. 2).
Overload Overload Overload Overload A single main contactor is the sim-
plest arrangement because power
can be applied or removed to all the
Motor 1 Motor 2 Motor 3 Motor 4 motors at once with a single operation.
But this arrangement requires that all
motors run simultaneously, and so it
doesn’t offer the flexibility of using
only the motors available or needed
Rotational power to shared mechanical load
to power the load. When starting
Image courtesy of Yaskawa Electric America Inc. motors across the line, a single con-
tactor arrangement results in a high
inrush current to the motors, causing
Fig. 2. Starting multiple motors started across the line with a contactor and an a sudden stress to plant power system.
overload for each motor reduces inrush current, but provides no means of vary- Using a contactor for each motor
ing motor speed electronically. instead of a single contactor reduces

2 • February 2010 plant engineering

the inrush current, but with either motor from zero to
arrangement there is no ability to the commanded
electronically vary the speed of the speed, reducing
motors individually without employ- motor inrush cur-
Drive
ing complex mechanical systems. rent.
Similar to single
Because load sharing uses mul- speed load shar-
ing arrangements,
tiple motors, it’s often possible the system can be
to operate at a reduced capacity configured to con-
trol all the motors
if one of the motors fails. using one large
va r i a b l e s p e e d Overload Overload Overload
In applications where motor speed drive (Fig. 3), or
needs to be controlled, either for all with individual
motors simultaneously or for each drives for each Motor 1 Motor 2 Motor 3
motor individually, variable speed motor (Fig. 4).
drives provide the best solution. When using
a s i n g l e d r ive
Meet the need for variable speed to power all the
Variable speed control allows motors motors, the drive Rotational power to
to operate at the optimal point of maxi- must be sized large shared mechanical load
mum efficiency, and is often a require- enough to handle
ment in certain applications. Adjustable the total load of Image courtesy of Yaskawa Electric America Inc.
speed motor drives such as inverters or all the motors com-
a variable frequency drives are typically bined. Individual Fig. 3. Controlling all motors with a single drive and an
used to control motor speed. In addition overloads should overload for each motor requires the drive to be large
to controlling motor speed, an adjust- be used for each enough to handle the total load of the combined motors,
able speed drive can soft-start a motor motor because most and to be operated in V/Hz mode.
through a controlled acceleration of the motor drives aren’t

designed to protect individual

motors when used in a multi-
motor load sharing configura-
tion.
Drive Drive Drive When multiple motors are
being controlled by a single
drive, vector control isn’t rec-
ommended as it’s designed for
control of a single motor. The
drive should instead be oper-
Encoder Encoder Encoder ated in a Volts-per-Hertz (V/
Hz) control mode, even thought
this mode doesn’t provide tight
Motor 1 Motor 2 Motor 3 speed regulation. With V/Hz
control, output speed varies
depending on the amount of
load due to slip in the motors.
Rotational power to Using an individual adjust-
able motor speed drive for each
shared mechanical load motor as depicted in Figure 4
provides two major advantages
Image courtesy of Yaskawa Electric America Inc.
over the single drive approach.
First, the system can continue
Fig. 4. Using an individual adjustable speed drive for each motor allows the system to to share the load and operate
continue operation if a single drive or motor fails, and also allows vector control, which if a single drive fails, albeit at
provides tighter speed regulation.

plant engineering February 2010 • 3

ELECTRICALSOLUTIONS
reduced capacity. Second, each drive provides many advantages over single motor via its own adjustable
can be operated in its closed-loop vec- motor systems, but care must be taken speed drive is recommended.
tor control mode. Unlike V/Hz control, in design to ensure maximum perfor-
vector control provides tight regula- mance. When tight speed control is Edward Tom is an application engi-
tion of speed regardless of load. required for the motors in a load shar- neer at Yaskawa Electric America Inc.
Load sharing with multiple motors ing system, individual control of each in Waukegan, IL. He has a BSME from
the University of Illinois at
Urbana-Champaign.
Advantages of load sharing
Although load sharing adds to machine complexity, if best practices in design are observed, load
sharing offers significant advantages when appropriately applied. These advantages include:
c The system can continue to operate when one motor fails
c Motive force can be more easily increased
c Smaller motors have shorter lead times
c Smaller motors are often priced more competitively
c Smaller motors take up less storage space
c Smaller motors require less maintenance when in storage.

Yaskawa Electric America, Inc.

2121 Norman Drive South
Waukegan, IL 60085
Phone: (800) YASKAWA (927-5292)
Fax: (847) 887-7310
Web: yaskawa.com

Posted from Plant Engineering, February 2010. Copyright © Reed Business Information, RBI™ a division of Reed Elsevier, Inc. All rights reserved.
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