Control Techniques

Application Note
Division of Nidec Motor Corporation
Unidrive Family
7078 Shady Oak Road AN0181
Eden Prairie, MN 55344-3505 USA
Rev.01, 5/22/17
T: +1 952 995-8000
www.controltechniques.com

The Application Note is pertinent to the Unidrive Family

Speed/Torque Follower
Introduction

Often times, a customer will call in with a troubled application where they have a main drive and a slave
drive following in either a precise speed mode or worse, Digital Lock similar to sketches below.

Application #1
Main Speed
Drive

Locked Slave
Helper Drive

The complaint is this situation is similar but they typical say “We have difficulty making
the drives share the load”. The trouble with this application happens right during the initial specification
of what the customer asks for : “I have an upper and lower belt that pinches material to pull it along.
The belt speeds must be locked together ! “, From that description,
(perhaps without this sketch), one falls into the trap of hearing “locked” which naturally steers one
toward Digital Locking- but depending on the grip that the upper & lower belts have on the material,
they may not be able to slip. One might say well I don’t want them to slip- that’s
why I want Digital Locking! Yes but…if there is even an infinitesimal difference in the outer
circumference of the belts and the motors are turning at exactly the same speed (digitally locked) the
surface speeds of the belts will not be matched. Even if they were, heat and
wear would eventually make their surface speeds different requiring the belts to slip- but if
they couldn’t then one of the drives would build up a position error and will ask the drive for correction.
The drive will continue to try harder until motor protection overload or current
limit steps in.

What the application really needs is perhaps precise speed control on one of the belts
(call it the Speed Master) and since the other belt is pinched to the material, the other belt needs to
assist with the load to move the material along. To satisfy this application we would set the Master up
for precise speed control and let the slave follow in Torque Mode with Speed Override. What this would
accomplish would be to help assist the Master with the pulling job. The only problem with a pure Torque
mode is that if there was suddenly no load, the motor would accelerate to perhaps a speed that would
not be prudent. However, by using the
Torque with Speed Override mode, this can be handled much more eloquently. Should
the load disappear, the Helper Drive would only accelerate to an adjustable speed above
the Masters speed.

7078 Shady Oak Road, Eden Prairie, MN 55344-3505

+1 952 995-8000 www.controltechniques.com
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Application #2
Main Speed Locked
Drive Slave Drive

The complaint is typically, “We have a difficult time setting the speed or ratio”. Just a little too much
ratio causes the main drive to OV trip. In this application, because of the customers complaint, the Main
Drive is trying to hold/maintain speed but the Slave is succeeding in over powering the Main Drive as
the material is not stretching. When non-extensible (non-stretchy) material is being processed, Digital
Locking is not a good application choice. In Digital Lock, the drives will do all in their power to maintain
the ratio requested. If the material will not yield, position error will accumulate and will ask the drive for
correction. The drive will continue to try harder until motor protection overload or current limit steps in. If
the material was extensible
(able to be stretched), the amount of elongation could nicely be controlled by the Ratio or %Draw
capability of Digital Locking.

There are at least three ways we could satisfy this application requirement.

Method # 1
Since the material in this scenario is essentially non-extensible, the Slave section really wants to be
controlling Tension. Tension control requires a Tension feedback device such as a Load Cell (force
transducer). Another approach would be to introduce a Dancer with either gravity or Air Loading
cylinder for applying Tension.

Method # 2
For a mechanically less complex but less precise method, we could set the Master up for precise speed
control and set the slave follow up as a Torque Regulated Speed Follower. For proper TRSF control,
which accounts for Static, Dynamic & Viscous Losses, a Co-Processor running the TRSF algorithm
should be employed. in Torque Mode with Speed Override. Tension could

Method #3
We could set the Master up for precise speed control and let the slave follow in Ratio
using Digital Lock but modulate (trim) the Ratio using Torque Feedback via the PID
Loop in menu 14.

Resources: can be found on our website: www.controltechniques.com

For help contact techsupport.cta@mail.nidec.com, or
call Technical Support at 952-995-8000, 24/7/365

7078 Shady Oak Road, Eden Prairie, MN 55344-3505

+1 952 995-8000 www.controltechniques.com
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