When watching a fully-automated warehouse, it is amazing how fast goods are transported, placed, or picked from large shelves. Companies producing these systems are experts in high-precision mechatronic solutions and complex software for the storage and handling of goods. To avoid high, added development costs and reduce TTM, they tried to use
off-the-shelf industrial components for the necessary electronics like motor drives, sensors, controllers, CPUs, cameras, lasers, interfaces, and
wireless communication systems.
But the special requirements of this type of application make it difficult to find any standard power supply solution. Fast acceleration and deceleration, in combination with riding on rails, cause high shock and vibration stress. The key requirement in intralogistics is the highest availability and a long lifetime of more than 10 years – and, of course, at the lowest cost.
For safe operation without special isolation protection, a maximum voltage of 60V is allowed on the rails. This voltage is generated by a high-power, industry-standard, three-phase DIN rail power supply with the output trimmed up to 60V.
The high power needed for the motors, and therefore the high currents on the long rails, cause significant voltage drops when there is intermittent contact between rails, wheels, or sliding contacts, which can result in voltage dropouts or transients, which are buffered by capacitors. This means wide-voltage swings on the input of the power supply of the transport unit must be able to work across this wide-voltage range.
An additional challenge comes from harsh temperature conditions in a warehouse, ranging from -20°C or lower in cool houses up to over 50°C in hot regions.
Due to these special requirements, this customer used a complex, discrete, custom design in the past, which was designed and produced by an external supplier. For a new design, the customer was looking for a simpler solution with fewer components and lower NRE.
RECOM supported this new design from the early concept stage to the final solution and suggested an easy-to-use, robust 200W DC/DC, isolated converter module.
The ultra-wide input range from 16.5 up to 140V can easily cover the widely-varying supply voltage on the rail and can handle the occurring undervoltages and overvoltages.
A metal baseplate permits cooling on the chassis of the transport unit and therefore enables a wide-operating-temperature range. Threaded inserts allow secure mounting to the PCB and chassis for use in this high-shock-and-vibration environment.
The datasheet of this converter already has a fully-validated EMI filter solution, and RECOM supported this design by offering to make measurements of the total solution in RECOM’s EMI lab for the customer.
The early engagement with RECOM allowed the customer to keep NRE costs low by focusing their efforts on what they do best, the mechanical and electrical design. This way, the customer was able to avoid any redesigns, setbacks, or unexpected surprises normally associated with discrete
custom designs.
Another big advantage reported by this customer was the reduction of sourcing issues down to one converter module plus a few components for the filter. The previous discrete design had hundreds of different components, including magnetics, that can sometimes be difficult to source.
