Obsolete Drives... Decisions!11/24/2016Obsolete drives present a special set of problems when they fail. Unfortunately all Saftronics AC drives, DC drives, soft starts, and dynamic brakes fall into this category. Saftronics as a company has been around since 1966. They have been operating from Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa since then. They have since stopped operating and distributing in North American markets. From the 1990s to the mid-2000’s they were headquartered in Fort Myers, FL. They sold branded drives and controls that were manufactured for them by other major manufacturers. Saftronics was partnered with Yaskawa America, Inc. until April 2001. During that time, all Saftronics AC drives, dymanic brakes, and soft starts that were built and sold were re-branded Yaskawa controls. After the end of the Saftronics/Yaskawa partnership, Saftronics then partnered with GE/Fuji as a manufacturing source for their controls. This represented a major shift in the form and operation of their entire line of controls. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, obsolete drives present a unique set of problems upon failure. The question of “Is it better to repair an existing control or replace it?” The Saftronics partnerships added an extra level of consideration. During the Yaskawa years, some of the Saftronics drives available included the G3 series, P5 series, PCU series, FP5 series, G5 series, and VG5 series just to name a few. Once the partnership ended, if repair was not feasible and replacement was the most viable option, the easier and usually less costly way to handle the replacent was to abandon the Saftronics brand and replace it with a Yaskawa manufactured drive of the same form and function made under the Yaskawa brand name. To stay with the same brand of drive under the new partnership meant retrofitting to a new drive with completely dissimilar size, wiring and programming. Some of these drives were the GP10 series, PC10 series, and CV10 series now manufactured by GE/Fuji.In late 2005 all of Saftronics’ North America operations were acquired by Emerson’s Control Techniques division. This represented the final shift for Saftronics in that the same cycle began again when replacement was again the best option. The name brand was eventually phased out and replaced with Emerson/Control Techniques’ branded drives and controls.Among some of the other controls that experienced the same product shifts were dynamic braking modules, DC drives and soft starts. To name a few of these: The SDBU series, VG10 series, DY4 series, DY5 series brakes as well as DG series, DG+ series, DG2 series, DCM6 series, DCM12 series, DF8 Series, and DF9 series DC drives. And finally the EZ Start series, EZS series, EZ6 series and CSXI series soft starters.During all of the partnerships, product shifts, and acquisitions, while they were still operating in North America, the expert drive repair specialists at PES always kept current with the technology of the day and while they had a program in place, we were factory authorized to repair Saftronics drive products. And even today we maintain our library of technical documentation for select products so you can be assured your drive is repaired correctly and by the best. Call us today at 800-732-4695. Back To Blog
Obsolete Drives... Decisions!11/24/2016Obsolete drives present a special set of problems when they fail. Unfortunately all Saftronics AC drives, DC drives, soft starts, and dynamic brakes fall into this category. Saftronics as a company has been around since 1966. They have been operating from Johannesburg, Gauteng, South Africa since then. They have since stopped operating and distributing in North American markets. From the 1990s to the mid-2000’s they were headquartered in Fort Myers, FL. They sold branded drives and controls that were manufactured for them by other major manufacturers. Saftronics was partnered with Yaskawa America, Inc. until April 2001. During that time, all Saftronics AC drives, dymanic brakes, and soft starts that were built and sold were re-branded Yaskawa controls. After the end of the Saftronics/Yaskawa partnership, Saftronics then partnered with GE/Fuji as a manufacturing source for their controls. This represented a major shift in the form and operation of their entire line of controls. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, obsolete drives present a unique set of problems upon failure. The question of “Is it better to repair an existing control or replace it?” The Saftronics partnerships added an extra level of consideration. During the Yaskawa years, some of the Saftronics drives available included the G3 series, P5 series, PCU series, FP5 series, G5 series, and VG5 series just to name a few. Once the partnership ended, if repair was not feasible and replacement was the most viable option, the easier and usually less costly way to handle the replacent was to abandon the Saftronics brand and replace it with a Yaskawa manufactured drive of the same form and function made under the Yaskawa brand name. To stay with the same brand of drive under the new partnership meant retrofitting to a new drive with completely dissimilar size, wiring and programming. Some of these drives were the GP10 series, PC10 series, and CV10 series now manufactured by GE/Fuji.In late 2005 all of Saftronics’ North America operations were acquired by Emerson’s Control Techniques division. This represented the final shift for Saftronics in that the same cycle began again when replacement was again the best option. The name brand was eventually phased out and replaced with Emerson/Control Techniques’ branded drives and controls.Among some of the other controls that experienced the same product shifts were dynamic braking modules, DC drives and soft starts. To name a few of these: The SDBU series, VG10 series, DY4 series, DY5 series brakes as well as DG series, DG+ series, DG2 series, DCM6 series, DCM12 series, DF8 Series, and DF9 series DC drives. And finally the EZ Start series, EZS series, EZ6 series and CSXI series soft starters.During all of the partnerships, product shifts, and acquisitions, while they were still operating in North America, the expert drive repair specialists at PES always kept current with the technology of the day and while they had a program in place, we were factory authorized to repair Saftronics drive products. And even today we maintain our library of technical documentation for select products so you can be assured your drive is repaired correctly and by the best. Call us today at 800-732-4695.