Extruder drive maintenance

Some early DC extruder drives used fixed-speed AC motors to drive DC generators that produced the variable voltage for the DC motor. Nowadays, the DC motor drives usually operate from a solid-state power supply, since this power supply is generally more cost-effective than the motor generator set. The DC motor drive can be simpler and cheaper than the variable frequency drive, even when the higher cost of the DC motor is included. The smaller number of solid-state devices tends to give the DC drive a better reliability than the variable frequency drive. Brushes and commutator maintenance is the principal drawback to the use of DC motors. If the drive has to be expiosion-proof, the additional expense associated with this option may be quite iarge for a DC drive, more so than with a variable frequency AC drive or a hydraulic drive. A schematic of the DC drive is shown in Fig. 3.4. 

Mechanical adjustable speed drives, nowadays, are rarely used in extruders because they are maintenance intensive, have limited speed control and speed ratio, and their power efficiency is not very good. 

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