HID Hitachi has a comprehensive range of PLC and variable speed inverter products on display at Drives and Controls, plus exciting news of a new software package and more inverters due to hit the marketplace later this year.

Getting its inaugural European showing at the Show, the tiny Hitachi SJ100 inverter, Hitachi's smallest sensorless flux vector inverter yet, offers starting torque of 200% or more and demonstrates an amazing array of features for such a compact package.

These Hitachi inverters include auto-tuning to set motor constants; second motor setting; PID control, 16-stage multi-speed operation and inrush current protection, all built in.

Operation is kept simple, the only controls being run and stop keys, plus a speed control knob on the main panel and function, scroll up and down, and store buttons inside the front case. Fan on or off can be selected, to give longer cooling fan life.

An intelligent terminal system enables users to select required functions from a comprehensive menu and allows remote programming and programme downloading from a PC or a Hitachi remote hand-held programming unit.

Equipped with regenerative braking as standard, the Hitachi SJ100 inverter is ideal for constant torque loads where high torque is needed at low speeds such as conveyors, extruders, mixers, lifts and others.

Stocks of all sizes from 0.2kW to 2.2kW single phase and 0.4kW to 7.5kW three phase are immediately available.

On the PLC side, Hitachi also has its range of latest PLCs, including the EH150 a new breed of PLC, which provides engineers with a choice of stand alone reliability or functionality through PC interfacing.

The EH-150 micro PLC is a highly modular, compact unit which can accommodate the insertion of any signal module for digital and analogue I/O into any slot, which makes configuring the rack as an I/O station for PC interfacing very simple.

All that is required to alter Hitachi's PLC into a PC interface is the simple substitution of the CPU with a bus link card. This creates the remote I/O block for the soft PLC.

Throughout the design of the EH-150, Hitachi has ensured that maximum networking flexibility is achieved, creating a truly open system because it permits interconnection to any field bus system whether it be Profibus, Interbus, DeviceNet, CAN open or AS-Interface, etc. Various modules can be clipped onto the base unit, like a signal group with the respective fieldbus interface prepared with all the required connections.

As well as the hardware devices, Hitachi is demonstrating its powerful new suite of inverter programming software called DriveManager. Designed to enable remote programming and operation of Hitachi inverters and sensorless flux vector variable speed drives, the new software runs on any IBM-compatible PC within Windows 95 or 3.11.

Essentially, the software emulates Hitachi's existing DOP and DRW hand held programming units, but with the convenience of being able to program drives at a desktop with a full size monitor. The screens within the Hitachi inverter drive programming software emulate the Windows environment, but also give views of all the DOP screens available.

The toolbar enables users to load data, print, save text and write EEPROM data to disk. Because the programming is in text files, the system is ideal for new users of Hitachi inverter drives since there is no need to have access to or knowledge of the Hitachi inverter address codes. In-built help screens and an automatic quick function parameter selection facility help further.

A worldwide technical support service is available on the Internet at: www.drivemanager.com.