Finding power limits, part 2

Long time since last tech related post! Today continued the test to find Argon drive power limits (see earlier tests here). This time I loaded drive’s internal AC to DC power supply with an old room heater while simultaneously measuring transmitted power from AC and DC lines.

The heater pulled 1.53 kW from drive HV DC bus for about 45 minutes continuously with only passive cooling of the drive. Temperatures were measured from multiple points of drive along PSU current path (components & PCB traces) to find out if anything is overheating. I’m happy to report that everything stayed relatively cool which means the drive is capable of at least 1.5 kW output continuously! The hottests parts inside were 8 Amp fuses which is easily helped by using larger fuses.

5 thoughts on “Finding power limits, part 2

  1. Hello. This is rather a question, but probably is a valid question for many followers of this blog.
    I am waiting for the release of this drivers to power a machine that we are reconstructing. This machine have 3 servos:

    4.3Kw cont 133V 18.7A
    4.0Kw cont 157V 14.7A
    1.8Kw cont 133V 8A

    I saw that the new drives would be able to output power of at least 1.5Kw…. So unsuitable for the requirements? (the “at least” confuses me). Thank you

    • “At least” is the current knowledge of the power capability of single Argon drive. So we have chance to run tests with higher load, the power rating may still increase.

      4 kW is definitely more than drive can output continuously. That kind of power can be achieved in short peak durations however.

      What sort of application do you have for these motors? Typical positioning applications consume quite little power so calculating on peak power is often sufficient.

      • It is a “normal” 1986 CNC lathe.
        The biggest power motor is for tool change, the Z axis is the 4Kw and the X axis is the 1.8Kw.
        I will probably wait for your drive as I was successful with previous granite devices drives.

  2. Hi Tero, can you let us know what the peak phase to phase voltage output will be on 230vac supply for Argon, and a guess on continuous and peak amp ratings?

    Many thanks,

    Jason

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