The J1000 AC drive from Yaskawa Electric America, Inc. claims to be the world's smallest compact drive with 70 percent less space required. With fewer parts used in the drive's construction, mean time between failure (MTBF) is increased to 28 years, and other component lifetimes are also extended, such as fans, capacitors and thermal optimization, according to the company's press release.

"The new J1000 was designed with three main principles in mind consisting of quality, reduced cost of ownership and maintainability," says Todd Ammerman, Yaskawa MicroDrive product manager. "All of these allow for the customer to get the most out of their products at a cost-effective price."

The goal to reduce cost of ownership is accomplished by compact design, side-by-side mounting and the capacity to run a larger motor with normal duty rating. An over-excitation braking feature allows the drive to limit stop times without external braking resistors.

The J1000 AC drive can store files for programming several drives quickly or backing-up the system, and it is equipped so hardware or software can function for this purpose. The drive is maintained by lifetime monitors, which constantly supervise how well the key components are working.

The J1000 drive is sized from 1/8 to 7.5 hp. Voltage classes are all 50/60 Hz; they are 200-240 V single-phase, 200-240 V three-phase and 380-480 V three-phase. Other standard features include an open loop V/f control with a 40:1 speed range, starting torque of 150 percent at 3 Hz, a 5-digit LED keypad, vibration resistance to 50 Hz and a swing PWM function to decrease motor noise.

Applications for the J1000 include industries such as material handling, food and beverage, fan and pump control, packaging, agricultural machines and industrial washers. The drive is RoHS compliant and has CE, UL and cUL global certification.