Fadal VFD Choice ??????

Hello Folks, Just after Christmas, I had to get some parts machined. As luck would have it, my AMC spindle drive went south on me. Fortunately, I still have my small mill to get the needed parts done. Glad I didn't sell it :)

My Fadal is a 3016L and my question is, can a generic, non-Fadal VFD be used on these Fadal's. I see 20hp VFD's on eBay go for a lot less than a new or repaired one from one of the Fadal parts suppliers. The reason I ask is that on another forum, someone mentioned that Fadal has the manufactures install special eproms in thier VFD's.

If I go the new inverter route, is one better than the other???? The suppliers have Baldor, Glentek, Yaskawa, and AMC. Any opinions on these drives ???? :)

Thanks!!!!

I'm pretty sure you cant just put in any ole spindle drive, i will have to ask my brother at Calmotion...... i would go with Glentek

rodney247 is right. We just went through this at work. I have a VMC 15 at my home shop, and we have three 3016's at work and one machine went down.. I have a spare drive and offered to bring mine in and they could use it and replace it but they are different. The drives can be rebuilt though.

SlowTwitch,

AMC is a good drive and I will assume you have had it for years. We offer the identical, however updated AMC inverter so your exchange is plug and play with no little tuning or mounting headaches. The Glentek drive is also a good drive, however a bit more expensive. It is also plug and play and mounts directly. We have both in stock.

If you are thinking of using a generic drive for this purpose you are in for far more than you know. It is not as easy as trying to use old eproms and plug them into a new drive. Baldor does not make drives any longer and have changed their name to ABB as I remember. They were the only ones with the EPROMS you speak of. The eproms were on the old Baldor drives but are not compatible with any newer drives. Trying to use a off the shelf drive will require you to know both the Wye and Delta parameters to make the motor run correctly (On the VMC15) along with about a dozen Input/output connections need to be made then everything adjusted for the motor you are using. It is daunting for anyone with an Electrical degree much less someone who knows little about the inverters.

Again, we stock both the AMC and Glentek and Yaskawa drives. All are good, and the difference between them is the tuning that needs done on the AMC that is very easy, and the other two don't need tuning. Sometimes on the Yaskawa we need to adjust parameters but that is rare.

FadalCNC.com Tech Support

Thanks for the replies :) I kind of figured that Fadal had some proprietary thing going on there. If I go the new drive route, I'll probably go with the Glentek.

AMC will repair it if it's not to old. Give them a call