“There’s
no question that
electric-drive equip-
ment is more energy efficient for
many reasons,” McBride said. “With electric
drive, there’s no energy ‘lost in translation’
— electric motors drive equipment directly.
By contrast, a hydraulic system uses an
electric motor to drive a hydraulic pump,
which then powers the equipment. Since
the process of converting electric energy to
fluid motion is not 100 percent efficient, the
hydraulic system will use more energy than
its all-electric counterpart.”
And by adding VFDs to an electric-drive
system, the operator can avoid start-up pow-
er surges and lower the peak energy demand.
“As well, when VFDs are controlled by an
intelligent carwash control system, the speed
of an entire tunnel system can be managed
with ‘one button’ — speeding or slowing the
conveyor and all other components together,”
McBride continued. “During lighter wash
volumes, this saves wear on the equipment.
During high-volume washing, this can
increase throughput while preserving wash
quality. With in-bay automatics, VFDs can
speed or slow wash passes and machine func-
tions mid-cycle, to achieve higher throughput
while providing greater dwell time where
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Flexible
