The ABB Group in New Berlin has donated eight new motor drives democases to Waukesha County Technical College’s Automation Technologies/Electronics Laboratory.
The donation from the Zurich-based power and automation technology company “enables us to upgrade our labs and gives students enhanced hands-on training with the latest available drives technology,” said Jesse Stuller, automation instructor at WCTC. “Our goal is to provide the highest quality education to our students. Our partnership with industry provides the avenue to accomplish that goal.”
The donation “values into tens of thousands of dollars,” said Ken Graber, ABB spokesman, but the specific dollar amount is not being disclosed.
The drives democases are from the new ACS880 high performance DTC product line.
“These units provide a simple, yet comprehensive, all-in-one solution that is specialized for training and learning,” said Dennis Miller, ABB senior technical instructor, who arranged the donation. “The democases facilitate a complete application simulation.”
Democases from the company that feature older technology have been in use over the past 15 years, Miller said, and the upgrade keeps the Automation Technologies Program current with latest technology that ABB offers end users.
In a press release ABB said, “Because the drives are extremely easy to use, they are ideal for students to use, program and test, as they become familiar with drive technology for the first time. The drive is connected to a small motor and has an external input/output control panel wired to the analog inputs, digital inputs, digital outputs and analog outputs. Students can simulate, fully, use of controls for any given application, and spin the motor just as it would work in a real application. The democase is extremely user friendly, which certainly aids the learning process. The whole gamut of applications can be simulated, from very basic speed-control applications to more complex torque-control applications.”
The Automation Technology Program at WCTC began in 2006. The Associate Degree program contains industrial technologies such as robotics, PLCs and drives.
The Zurich, Switzerland-based ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 150,000 people worldwide, roughly 500 of whom are in Wisconsin.
