Optidrive Elevator VFDs

Invertek Drives facilitates a smooth elevator ride for residents’ automated tower car parking in Mumbai with a complex car park elevator system.

Transporting vehicles by elevator to a tower parking facility is a complex process. It’s crucial to ensure a smooth and silent ride to the right floor for the safety of the vehicle and to avoid disturbing residents during the procedure.

In Mumbai, automated car parking experts Wipro-PARI are best known for their highly efficient systems in both aboveground and underground vehicle parking. Integrated into many of their solutions are Invertek Drives’ Optidrive Elevator variable frequency drives (VFDs). These accurately control the electric motors during both vertical and horizontal movement.

A recent project involved the development of a 24-story parking tower integrated with an 18-story residential block in Mumbai. Vehicles enter the elevator before being lifted to one of the floors, where they are then moved from one tray to another to be parked. The reverse happens when the residents want to take the car out.

Bhupesh Katakkar, Invertek Drives country manager for India, said:

“Vehicle elevators require certain essential features, such as smooth movement, quiet operation and a seamless start and stop, in addition to a quiet operation to not disturb residents in their apartments. To achieve this, four 37-kW Optidrive Elevator drives control 30kW/37kW induction motors in the four towers of the building were linked to the residential block. The vehicles are transported to the appropriate level and then transferred from one floor to another within one of the parking towers. The elevator can accommodate vehicles weighing up to 3 t.”

The geared elevator system operates in a closed loop.

Mahesh Joshi, head of Controls Design at Wipro-PARI, said the Optidrive Elevator was a perfect companion to the parking systems, adding:

“We have to ensure the smooth and safe movement of vehicles throughout their transit from the entrance to the parking space and vice versa. The inverter is crucial for this, and the Optidrive Elevator drive not only ensures a smooth ride, but its motor braking control has also been superior compared to other drives we’ve used. This combination is crucial to achieve the highly accurate stopping of the elevator at the parking floors.”

The Optidrive Elevator is a dedicated drive for geared and gearless lift applications. It has a compact design that is ideal for use in elevator applications. Its five independent S-Ramps allow fine tuning of ride and performance and jerk-free travel.

Additional features include high-motor switching frequency for quiet motor operation, which is imperative in residential environments. Other advanced features include anti-rollback in open- and closed-loop operation and brake release monitoring, in addition to others.

About Intertek Drives
Invertek Drives is dedicated to the design and manufacture of sophisticated VFDs, used to control motors in a wide variety of industrial and energy-saving applications. It is a global organization with leading-edge design and technology, highly committed to innovation, having a global network of specialist sales and service partners, global engineered support program and world-class manufacturing. Invertek Drives has secured ISO 14001:2015 accreditation for its Environmental Management System, an internationally accepted standard designed to address the delicate balance between maintaining profitability and reducing environmental impact.