Air-Actuated vs. Electrically-Actuated Seven Reasons - A Comparative Analysis Air Champ® vs. Electric: As the result of tests conducted by an independent laboratory, Nexen Group, Inc. identified seven key performance-related and cost-saving advantages of air-actuated clutch-brakes over electric units of comparable size. The tests were conducted by Huntingdon Engineering & Environmental, Inc. of St. Paul, Minnesota. Units tested were the Nexen Air Champ FMCBE-625 air clutch-brake and a comparable electric clutch-brake. Advantages • Response Time • Torque Output • Facing Life Comparison • Thermal Horsepower • Repair Costs • Energy Consumption Unit Cost Savings

Table of Contents Air Champ vs Electric: Seven Comparison Points ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 3 Introduction ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 4 The Air Advantage --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5 The Tests: Nexen FMCBE-625 vs. An Electric Clutch-Brake Response Time -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------...

Air Champ® vs. Electric: Seven Comparison Points • Response Time: Response time is the increment of time in seconds from the time the power is turned on or off at the control valve, or power supply, to the time the clutch or brake responds with (full load) torque, or disengages and the torque begins to decay. The time to 100% clutch torque for the air clutch was 40% faster than for the electric clutch. The time to zero torque (brake on) for the air clutch was 42% faster than for the electric. • Torque Output: Tests focused on the torque output of NEMA 56 C-flanged air and electric clutch-brakes....

Introduction As an international manufacturer of industrial power transmission brakes, clutches and clutch-brakes, Nexen leads the industry in innovation. Since 1951, our Engineering, Research and Development Teams have designed and tested products with one motivation in mind – to introduce quality products that help our customers reduce costs and increase productivity. Our products are continually evaluated and updated, and new products designed to meet the demands in the marketplace. With the introduction of the first air-actuated brakes on the market, Air Champ®, Nexen has set the highest...

The Air Advantage Air-engaged clutch-brakes are more efficient and economical to operate than similarly sized electric clutch-brakes because of one important reason - air-engaged clutch-brakes generate less heat during operation. Less heat allows greater torque transmission and efficiency. The greater thermal capacity of air-engaged clutch-brakes gives them longer operating life. Since more work is done with an air-engaged clutch-brake, air actuation proves to be more cost effective. It also costs less to run an air compressor than to operate an electric clutch-brake. Nexen Air Champ products...

RESPONSE TIME The following test was conducted under controlled test tab conditions. The two products tested were Nexen’s FMCBE-625 and a popular electrically-actuated clutch-brake. The first area we tested was response time. Specifically, response time is the increment of time in seconds from the time power is turned on or off at the control valve, or power supply, to the time the clutch or brake responds with 100% torque, or disengages and the torque begins to decay. For air-engaged units, the size of the control valve is a contributing factor to the response time value. A valve with a higher...

Clutch and Brake Overlap Overlap is a momentary time interval at the beginning of the clutch torque rise when the brake torque has not totally decayed. (See Figure 3.) In air-engaged units having separate cylinders for the clutch and the brake, the tendency of overlap occurs because full supply pressure forces air into one cylinder at the same time the pressure in the other cylinder is pushing the air out the exhaust. In air-engaged units, this condition is controlled with quick exhaust valves located at the air inlet ports. Electric clutch-brakes apply coil suppression techniques to control...

In comparison, the pneumatic clutch transmitted 35 to 40% more torque under the same conditions because it operated at a lower temperature. Note the dramatic drop in the electric unit torque when the speed increased. The advantage of this kind of performance characteristic in the air-engaged clutch is that smaller air units can be used in place of larger electric units. Also note the difference between the rated static torque and measured static torque in Nexen's and electric clutch- brakes. (Figure 4b) Figure 4b. Empirical Data From Huntingdon Test. As with torque output, the torque fade differs...

Facing Life Comparison Next we looked at the facing life differences between FMCBE-625 and the electric clutch-brake. To determine the estimated friction facing life we followed this procedure: • irst, find the volume of the usable facing material. The thickness of this material is usable to the mounting screw F heads (Nexen) or backing plate (electric). • econd, determine the friction material wear rate. (The wear rate of friction materials with a known coefficient of S friction is determined under test conditions where speed and pressure are controlled and the material thickness loss is measured...

Conveyor System Application For a head to head analysis of pneumatic vs electric clutch-brakes the Nexen FMCBE-625 was compared to a comparable electric clutch-brake in a typical conveyor system application. They were subjected to the same set of operating criteria and calculated how each unit would perform under identical conditions. The type of application is called a cyclic start-stop. The clutch-brake in the drive system positions boxes on a conveyor as they move under a hopper which fills the boxes with a product. A box is positioned under the hopper every second. For this, we used the following...