Considerations when applying ASD's in continuous processes

Proper use of adjustable speed drives (ASD's) in any application requires informed considerations of many issues, When that application is an integral part of a continuous process, the implications of those considerations, in financial terms, can be greatly magnified, By definition, in this paper, a continuous process is any process in which the product being manufactured hows through the manufacturing cycle with no interruption or intermediate storage or lag. Therefore, any interruption to that process will halt the entire manufacturing flow, with implications ranging from just lost production to extremely costly implications like repair, re-stringup, or removal of polymers that have ''set up'' in piping, etc, Paraphrasing a real estate motto, when applying ASD's in a continuous process, the three most important factors are reliability, reliability, and reliability. The requirement for the high level of reliability, along with state-of-the-art potential solutions dealing with power quality issues, will be presented.