A test facility for electric drives with high inertial loads

In many process control applications, electric drives are required to respond quickly to changes in operating conditions, such as load torque variations. There are numerous control strategies, which can be applied to this problem, but many industries are very conservative and regard new strategies as high risk, because of the potential loss of production during commissioning. Simulation studies can minimise the risk, but experimental verification of novel control approaches using nonproduction test facilities provides further reassurance. The paper describes the design, development and installation of a high inertial load drive test facility for the experimental investigation of control strategies applicable to the casting drum drive in a plastic film production process. The facility has been designed to be of sufficient size that its performance is representative of a real production unit and it is also re-configurable, so that different plant layouts can be considered. Included in the paper are experimental results illustrating the inherent steady-state speed holding capability of the test facility.