Automotive technology supplier Bosch Rexroth’s new large electric drives open up opportunities for users to improve energy efficiency, such as through power regeneration.

The company offers a fine-scaled product range of strong drive solutions, from 110 kW to 4 MW, for such applications. This corresponds, for example, to the drive power that is necessary to pull a freight train up to 700 m long. At the same time, the Safety-on-Board safety functions integrated in the drives ensure increased protection of man and machine.

With forming and plastics machines, metallurgy or materials handling equipment, much force is often necessary, so a high degree of drive power is required. Even so, end-users expect more energy efficiency in order to reduce operating costs. With the new large electric drives from Rexroth, machine operators can reduce power consumption up to the multi-megawatt range and thereby increase productivity.

The drives use the expertise of the Rexroth 4EE system, as they are increased in terms of efficiency, function according to demand and offer numerous opportunities for energy recovery. In multi-axis systems, the drives enable the use of braking energy within the drive assemblage through a direct current bus coupling. Moreover, excess energy can be fed back into the network. Users can benefit further through concepts for static and rotational energy storage, as well as the Smart Energy Mode software function made available with the drives. In addition, air and liquid cooling systems offer different ways of dissipating and using waste heat. Rexroth offers large electric drives in performance degrees of 110 kW to 500 kW. Through a parallel connection of up to eight devices, mechanical engineers achieve a drive power of up to 4 MW.

The drive-integrated Safety-on-Board safety features ensure standard-compliant machine safety. This simplifies engineering and enables integrated modularisation, as a higher-level control unit is not necessary for safety. Large electric drives also have the Safe Torque Off and Safe Motion certified safety functions.

The optional integrated motion logic provides a variety of application- specific technology functions for peripherally coordinated movements. As a result, it solves even complex motion tasks with up to ten axes. This allows machine manufacturers to automate economically. The decentralised approach relieves the higher- level control unit, or even makes it unnecessary in many cases.

With the consistency of the firmware functions as well as the control unit parts, the large electric drives offer all the functions of the IndraDrive family. This simplifies the combination of drives throughout the entire output range, from 100 W to 4 MW. With multi-Ethernet and multi-encoder interfaces, it fits seamlessly into various automation architectures.

Drive and control technology from Bosch Rexroth is economically viable, precise, safe and energy efficient when used in any machine and in systems of any size. The company bundles global application experience in the market segments of mobile applications, machinery applications and engineering, factory automation, and renewable energies to develop innovative components as well as tailored system solutions and services.

Bosch Rexroth offers its customers hydraulics, electric drives and controls, pneumatics, gear technology and linear motion and assembly technology all from one source. With locations in over 80 countries, more than 37 500 associates generated sales revenue of about £6.5-billion in 2012.

Bosch Group is active in the fields of automotive technology, energy and building technology, industrial technology and consumer goods. According to preliminary figures, more than 306 000 associates generated sales of £52.3-billion in 2012. The group comprises Robert Bosch GmbH and has more than 350 subsidiaries and regional companies in some 60 countries. Including its sales and service partners, Bosch is represented in roughly 150 countries. This worldwide development, manufacturing and sales network are the foundation for further growth.

In 2012, Bosch spent some £4.5-billion on research and development and applied for over 4 700 patents worldwide. Bosch Group’s products and services are designed to improve the quality of life by providing solutions which are both innovative and beneficial.