Earl Industries Announces Successful Qualification Testing of Energy Efficient Variable Speed Drive for Shipboard Motors
Portsmouth, Va. – Earl Industries announced today the completion of a significant milestone in a multiyear development program for a new line of breakthrough technology, energy efficient Variable Speed Drives (VSD) for electric motors. The innovative design of this VSD is expected to provide 30% – 50% energy savings over traditional motor controllers.
Earl’s new 10-horsepower VSD, implemented with the breakthrough AC-link* power conversion and control technology successfully completed a series of qualification tests proving the drive meets the electromagnetic interference, power quality, and volume requirements of the Navy’s rigorous performance standards and specifications. These tests ensure the device can integrate into a ship’s electric power system without affecting power quality or injecting noise into other sensitive shipboard equipment and systems.
While the commercial marketplace has used VSD for many years, routinely realizing major energy savings, those legacy drives do not meet the Navy’s power quality requirements. Accordingly, they cannot be used in Navy shipboard applications without expensive and inefficient power conditioning and interference filtering electronics.
RADM (ret) Jeff Brooks, Chief Operating Officer, Earl Industries said “the Navy has been trying to put variable speed drives into ships for over 30 years but has been unable to find a drive that meets stringent shipboard requirements. This drive meets all those requirements and allows the Navy to immediately harvest significant energy savings by more efficiently powering shipboard systems.”
The Navy’s ambitious energy goals, recently established by Navy Secretary Ray Mabus, to reduce petroleum fuel use and adopt alternative and renewable energy sources can best be accomplished through innovative technology such as the AC-link VSD. Further, the AC-link technology implemented in this drive is applicable to the many engineering challenges presented by the Navy’s long-range shipboard electrification strategy, particularly those outlined in the Next Generation Integrated Power System (NGIPS) program.
Jerry Miller, President of Earl Industries said “We have been investing aggressively toward new technologies that address the Navy’s growing demand for alternative energy and energy savings products. This drive is the first in a full series of drives of various frame sizes under development by Earl and our team mate, Princeton Power Systems of Princeton, NJ.”
Earl’s drive is now cleared for installation in the Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning (HVAC) system for the Flexible Infrastructure Space of USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78) currently under construction at Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding, Newport News, VA. This next generation HVAC system is designed to support the variable ventilation demands of the rapidly reconfigurable Flexible Infrastructure space.
Earl Industries is a high technology, multidimensional company supplying world class, core competencies in complex ship repair and engineering, manufacturing, new technology coatings, and energy efficient electrical and control systems. Headquartered in Portsmouth, Virginia, Earl Industries boasts a 25-year history of innovation, exceptional customer responsiveness, and on-the-deck-plate service to our Nation’s military community. For more information contact Milo Hyde, Director, Integrated Power Systems at mhyde@earl-ind.com and visit us at www.earl-ind.com.
* AC-link is a trade name owned by Princeton Power Systems that represents a suite of technologies owned by Princeton Power Systems.
