As energy conservation becomes a global focus, the energy efficiency of motor design is increasingly becoming a concern. Motor drive products are constantly adapting to industry trends, helping designers improve energy efficiency, reduce energy consumption, increase reliability, and reduce component count, playing a positive role in achieving energy conservation.
Motor market development trend
After a century of development, electric motors have become widely used. The application of electric motor drive products in fields such as automobiles and industry is a microcosm of the main trends in the electric motor market.
First, there's the trend of automotive electrification, where automakers replace traditional internal combustion engine power with integrated, high-efficiency electric motors. This typically involves replacing belt and gear drives with brushless direct current (BLDC) motors for auxiliary components under the hood, such as pumps, valves, heating and air conditioning systems, and fans. Due to the superior performance of BLDC motors, they are also beginning to find applications that traditionally use brushed direct current (BDC) motors.
Another trend is that the increased application of assembly rates has led to an increase in the number of motors installed. For example, motorized heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) valve control (mainly used for brushed DC and single-pole stepper motors) is also beginning to be applied to HVAC systems in lower-end cars.
BLDC motors are increasingly used in industrial and telecommunications applications. Typical applications include fans, blowers, pumps, and compressors. BLDC motors are more energy efficient than AC motors or switched reluctance motors. BLDC motors enable low-cost variable speed applications, especially when integrated with sensorless commutation algorithms, thus eliminating the need for external sensors.
New requirements for motor drive applications due to energy conservation trends
Energy costs are typically the largest component of an electric motor's total lifespan. Therefore, using more efficient motors can save significant amounts of energy.
The energy-saving trend places new demands on motor drives in several aspects. First, energy efficiency is determined by the selected motor technology and structure, thus requiring the selection of motors that maximize the conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy. Second, it necessitates selecting drive circuits that minimize power consumption and improve energy efficiency. Third, it requires optimizing energy consumption through enhanced motor drive intelligence.
Furthermore, some applications require systems that do not use brushed motors (using stepper or brushless DC motors); instead, they employ sensorless commutation (without potentiometer or Hall sensor feedback) and embedded motion control algorithms (for low-power applications) to maximize energy efficiency, reduce audible noise, and improve electromagnetic interference (EMC) performance. Additionally, some applications require the drive circuitry to be positioned adjacent to the motor on the electromechanical actuator and connected to the central control unit via a bus (LIN, I2C, etc.).
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