NORD DRIVESYSTEMS combines motor and inverter in new NORDAC FUSION drive unit

The decentralised unit merges motor and drive electronics into one package, taking cabinets and cabling out of material-handling installations.

NORD DRIVESYSTEMS has launched NORDAC FUSION, a decentralised drive that builds a motor and a frequency inverter into a single, ready-to-run unit. It targets automated material handling, where each drive axle has traditionally meant a separate motor, inverter, cabinet space and cabling.

Because the two components are matched electrically and mechanically at the design stage, the unit ships plug-and-play — no on-site parameterisation or component selection. For high-throughput logistics, that means less engineering per axle, faster commissioning, and, with the electronics mounted directly on the drive, no central control cabinet and far less wiring.

FUSION pairs NORD’s asynchronous (IE3) or permanent-magnet synchronous (IE5+) motors with its NORDAC ON inverter, in ventilated and unventilated builds, across a 0.31 to 3.7 kW range. The inverter carries an integrated PLC and a multi-protocol Ethernet interface: PROFINET, EtherNet/IP and EtherCAT are set through parameters, not hardware. Safety runs beyond STO and SS1 to motion-monitoring functions — SLS, SMS, SSM — that tie into a network over PROFIsafe or FSoE, or run stand-alone.

Two things set it apart. With the IE5+ motors, FUSION runs encoderless: NORD’s CFC open-loop injection method reads rotor position and speed without a sensor, cutting cost and a failure point from dynamic applications. And those motors hold up to 95% efficiency across a wide torque range, strongest in the partial-load, partial-speed zone where most conveyor duty sits.

Rated to –30 °C, with an NXD tupH variant for food-sector wash-down, the drive is aimed at intralogistics and warehousing — segments drawing steady automation investment in India as e-commerce and organised logistics scale up.