Regulation perfected

According to Kostal Industrial Electrics, the scarcity of rare earths is impacting drive technology.

Rare earths such as neodymium and dysprosium are important components in permanent magnet synchronous motors (PMSM). China's announced export ban on rare earths threatens production downtime and rising costs in these drive applications.

A possible solution to this dilemma, however, is already on the table: switching to motors with synchronous reluctance technology. These can be operated entirely without rare earths and are therefore not affected by China's export ban.

Reluctance technology, which has previously represented a niche in drive technology, could prove to be a game changer in drive technology due to current developments on the global market. However, the control of reluctance motors has so far been considered relatively complex, so hardly any manufacturer offers corresponding control methods.

Kostal has long been integrating reluctance motors with its Inveor frequency converters and has perfected the control of this technology. The Kostal control technology is capable of controlling such motors with a performance comparable to that of almost any other provider on the market.

Customers benefit from a full speed control range down to zero speed, high dynamics, and power density. Even positioning applications are possible with the reluctance motors, and all this is, of course, sensorless and without the use of a rotor position sensor.

The result is a robust and scalable solution for industrial applications with excellent performance even without permanent magnets, while simultaneously being independent of rare earth elements and at a lower cost.