Sami Star inverters with new Rectifier

[Masbibe]

Hi guys,

I am involved in one project where customer ask from us to install new abb igbt rectifier (ISU) on old abb Sami Star inverters. It is multidrive configuration with four Sami Star inverters.

I never worked with such old drives like Sami Star and it is very hard to find some documentation for this drive on net.

Is this configuration is possible to work together.
Can somebody give me some cataloque or hardware manuals for Sami Star dirves.

Any comments, thoughts and possible problems that somebody can see will be very helpfull.

Milovan Milosevic

 

[jraef]

SamiStar drives are very old technology as VFDs go, they were a legacy of when ABB bought Stromberg in the late 1980s. They were probably discontinued by ABB in the early to mid 1990s and most likely they were gone before the advent of the widespread internet use, so on-line documentation would be limited to paper documents that someone scanned in.

Have you tried contacting ABB? Allen Bradley also used to brand-label that drive from Stromberg as the 1352 Series, they may have some scanned-in documentation available if you look.


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[electricuwe]

Check first if the old inverters can cope with the higher dc-link voltage supplied by an IGBT rectififer.

 

[Masbibe]

jreaf and electricuwe,

Thanks for responses.

jreaf: Thanks for this information about Stromberg name of drive. I contact local ABB Serbia and now I waiting for response.

electricuwe: igbt rectifier can give bigger DC voltage, but also in this abb ISU type of rectifier you can define reference value for DC voltage, so this should not be a problem.

Any more eventual problems that somebody can see.
Or some manuals except the manuals that you can regulary download from ABB officiel site.


Milovan Milosevic

 

[DickDV]

SamiStar ABB drives are actually quite well supported even today 20 years after their production. The paper industry is full of those units. They are highly upgradable but you need someone who is familiar with the older analog controls.

Also, I may be wrong on this but, if I recall correctly, the SamiStars were all Medium Voltage. The Allen Bradley "ABS" Stromberg 1352's were low voltage drives made by Stromberg and supported today by ABB even tho the front door says Allen Bradley. I believe SamiStar and the ABS drives were two separate product lines.

 

[jraef]

The MV version was called the MegaStar. Same controller, different power section. The SamiStar was the A-B 1352 for sure, I worked for ABB back then. A-B sales force knew nothing about the product, but when I would get the SamiStar spec'd, A-B would swoop in and take the order. One time they even were so bold as to claim the "named supplier" listed on the requisition as ABB had a typo in it that added the extra B...


"If I had eight hours to chop down a tree, I'd spend six sharpening my axe." -- Abraham Lincoln
For the best use of Eng-Tips, please click here -> faq731-376

 

[ozmosis]

I've certainly come across Low Voltage Samistar units. Mainly in the paper industry but still very much LV.
I'm thinking that if the rectifier is an IGBT based 'controlled' unit, it should be able to control the DC link voltage as well. Not 100% but worth looking at.

 

[electricuwe]

IGBT rectfiers can control the dc-link voltage to a value above the peak-to-peak value of the line-to-line voltage. And to ensure proper control of the input currents they need usually at least 100 V of headroom.

An it is in doubt, if an old inverter design can cope with that.

Therefore, check in detail before ordering.

 

[Masbibe]

electrucuwe,

I dint understood this word "headroom" (i tried with dictionary but I didnt find anything).

What I meant to say is that on ABB igbt type rectifier (they call it ISU) you can define how much DC voltage you want. So this thing about DC voltage should not be a problem. Am I right.

Milovan Milosevic

 

[electricuwe]

- on "headroom"
as I'm not a native speaker I checked this word at

http://www.leo.org

--> no problem

- on the rectfier operation of an IGBT stack:

Do not rely on simple qualitative statements, check the specified range

or

- find some textbook on basics of power electronics to understand how an IGBT rectfifier works