Control Techniques: “Mentor MP” raises the standard for dc drives

A new dc drive, the Mentor MP by Control Techniques (www.controltechniques.com), is the result of several years research and  development and now sets a new world standard for excellence in dc motor control. 
“Mentor MP” follows in the footsteps of the well known “Mentor” brand, launched as the world’s first digital dc drive in 1986 but offers the same flexible control platform as Control Techniques’ intelligent ac drive, “Unidrive SP”. Most peculiar characteristics of “Mentor MP” are: giving energy efficient operation, high motor performance and extreme flexibility in its system interfacing capabilities and onboard processing power.
“Mentor MP” plays a part in promoting sustainable technology.  Dc motors are both efficient and robust and offer years upon years of service, providing good  performance in a wide range of industrial processes and applications. Retaining an existing dc motor and upgrading the drive makes good environmental and investment sense to any customer’s upgrade project. It provides the  opportunity to enhance the overall system performance and reliability whilst minimising problematic re-engineering and installation work; an attractive proposal in today’s economic. Control Techniques has a patent (pending) to protect a unique aspect of the “Mentor MP” design. Galvanic isolation between power and control is a standard feature in ac drives and, in the case of power-side failure, protects the control circuits and customer connected equipment. Other dc drives feature a form of isolation that rely on only impedance only isolation, which has limitations; “Mentor MP” doesn’t, its novel technology achieves galvanic isolation without compromising performance or reliability.
Each “Mentor MP” has three universal option module slots offering users unrivalled flexibility to choose from any combination of the 18 option modules available.
The range of optional fieldbus connectivity is unique, including Profibus-Dp, Interbus-S, DeviceNet, CanOopen and various Ethernet protocols such as Modbus Tcp/Ip, Ethernet/Ip and EtherCat.