Investigating power quality solutions for computer numerical control machine tools

摘要

Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) research and testing, conducted over many years, has indicated that variations in electric power quality can negatively impact end-use equipment. This research and testing has helped to form the theory that the least costly and most effective measure for making end-use equipment more robust to power quality fluctuations is to embed effective mitigation solutions into the equipment itself. This work is best accomplished by the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) themselves. Embedded solutions are equipment modifications that OEMs could make to substantially decrease the sensitivity of their product to various power quality phenomena (i.e., voltage sags). Recent voltage-sag tests performed at National Institute of Standards and Technology (MIST) on a Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machine tool has revealed that power quality problems such as voltage sags not only have an effect by interrupting production, but can also cause performance degradations that directly impact the quality of the machined product. This paper discusses the results of these tests and a variety of available power-conditioning technologies and methods of embedding solutions to improve the power quality performance of CNC machine tools.