JP6049468B2 - Power converter - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a power conversion device that generates an arbitrary AC voltage by converting an AC voltage, and more particularly to a power conversion device having a function of suppressing an inrush current.

  In a conventional power conversion device having an inrush current suppression function, when the bus voltage drops to a preset differential voltage value, the inrush current prevention relay is turned off, and the inrush current prevention relay is connected in parallel. The smoothing capacitor is charged via the inrush current prevention resistor, and after the smoothing capacitor is charged, the inrush current prevention relay is turned on to suppress the inrush current (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2007-74884 A

  In the inrush current suppression in the conventional power converter, when the bus voltage drops, the inrush current prevention relay is turned off and the current flows through the inrush current prevention resistor to suppress the inrush current caused by the occurrence of instantaneous power failure. ing. Therefore, there is a problem that a loss due to a resistance component occurs every time the inrush current is suppressed.

  This invention is made | formed in view of the above, Comprising: It aims at obtaining the power converter device which can suppress an inrush current, suppressing an increase in loss.

  In order to solve the above-described problems and achieve the object, a power converter according to the present invention converts a smoothing capacitor that smoothes a DC voltage and a bus voltage that is a DC voltage after being smoothed by the smoothing capacitor. And an inverter circuit for generating an AC voltage for driving the motor, and a control means for controlling the operation of the inverter circuit based on the bus voltage. The control means has a predetermined threshold value for the bus voltage. When it is detected that the voltage has fallen below, the generation of the AC voltage for driving the motor by the inverter circuit is stopped, and the smoothing capacitor is charged using the regenerative voltage generated by the motor to which the AC voltage for driving the motor is supplied. It is characterized by doing.

  Advantageous Effects of Invention According to the present invention, there is an effect that it is possible to realize a low-loss power converter that does not need to perform inrush current suppression using a current suppression resistor when an instantaneous power failure occurs.

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a power converter according to the present invention.

  Hereinafter, embodiments of a power conversion device according to the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. Note that the present invention is not limited to the embodiments.

Embodiment 1 FIG.
FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a configuration example of a power converter according to the present invention. 1 converts an AC voltage supplied from an AC power source 1 into an AC voltage for driving a motor 10, and includes a rectifier circuit 3, an inrush current prevention relay 4, an inrush current prevention resistor 5, A smoothing capacitor 6, a bus voltage detection circuit 7, an inverter circuit 8, and a microcomputer (MCU) 12 are provided.

  The rectifier circuit 3 is mainly composed of a diode bridge, and rectifies the AC voltage supplied from the AC power supply 1 via the breaker 2 to generate a DC voltage. The smoothing capacitor 6 smoothes the DC voltage that has been rectified by the rectifier circuit 3. Between the rectifier circuit 3 and the smoothing capacitor 6, an inrush current preventing resistor 5 is connected to suppress the inrush current during the initial charging of the smoothing capacitor 6. Further, both ends of the inrush current preventing resistor 5 are short-circuited and opened. Inrush current prevention relay 4 is connected. The inverter circuit 8 includes a plurality of freewheel diodes 9 and a plurality of switching elements 13, and the DC voltage smoothed by the smoothing capacitor 6 is converted into a motor by turning on and off each switching element 13 in accordance with a command from the microcomputer 12. An AC voltage for 10 driving is generated. The input side of the inverter circuit 8 (the side to which the smoothing capacitor 6 is connected) is connected to a bus voltage detection circuit 7 for the microcomputer 12 to detect the bus voltage that is the voltage across the smoothing capacitor 6. The inrush current preventing resistor 5 and the inrush current preventing relay 4 may be arranged at different positions as long as the inrush current during the initial charging of the smoothing capacitor 6 can be suppressed. Further, as shown in the figure, a DC / DC power source 11 that operates as a power source for a device that requires supply of a DC voltage is connected to the subsequent stage (output side) of the rectifier circuit 3, and the DC / DC power source 11 is connected to the rectifier circuit 3. The direct current voltage generated in step (1) may be converted into a predetermined direct current voltage and supplied to the microcomputer 12, the inverter circuit 8, or a device not shown.

  Next, the operation of the power conversion device will be described.

  In the power conversion device having the configuration shown in FIG. 1, when the smoothing capacitor 6 is initially charged, the AC power source 1 is input by turning on the breaker 2, and the rectifier circuit 3 rectifies the input voltage. At this time, the inrush current prevention relay 4 is turned off, and the DC voltage rectified by the rectifier circuit 3 is charged to the smoothing capacitor 6 through the inrush current prevention resistor 5. After the smoothing capacitor 6 is charged, the inrush current prevention relay 4 is turned on to switch the current path from the inrush current prevention resistor 5 to the inrush current prevention relay 4. The inrush current prevention relay 4 is controlled by, for example, the microcomputer 12. The inverter circuit 8 is switched by the instruction of the microcomputer 12 to drive the motor 10 by using the bus voltage charged in this way, and the smoothing capacitor 6 is always charged from the AC power supply 1 to the power consumed by the driving.

  When the initial charging of the smoothing capacitor 6 is completed by the above procedure and an instantaneous power failure or the like occurs while the motor 10 to be driven is being driven, the AC power supply 1 disappears, so the power consumed by driving the motor 10 is reduced. The smoothing capacitor 6 cannot be charged from the AC power source 1. At this time, when the bus voltage value input to the microcomputer 12 by the bus voltage detection circuit 7 decreases to a preset voltage value, the drive output from the microcomputer 12 to the inverter circuit 8 is stopped. That is, the microcomputer 12 as the control means stops the control for switching the switching element 13 of the inverter circuit 8. Then, the regenerative voltage generated as a result from the motor 10 is supplied to the smoothing capacitor 6 via the free wheel diode 9 of the inverter circuit 8 to charge the smoothing capacitor 6. In FIG. 1, an example of a current path when an instantaneous power failure occurs is indicated by a broken line. This charging operation can reduce the potential difference between the AC power supply 1 and the smoothing capacitor 6 when the power supply recovers from a power failure such as an instantaneous power failure, and an excessive inrush current flows from the AC power supply 1 to the rectifier circuit 3. Can be suppressed.

  The microcomputer 12 stops the drive output to the inverter circuit 8 and stops the operation of the inverter circuit 8 (the operation of switching the switching element 13 to convert the DC voltage into the AC voltage for driving the motor 10). Thereafter, for example, the operation is resumed when it is detected that the bus voltage has reached a certain value (the operation return voltage). Further, when the bus voltage does not reach the operation return voltage after a certain period of time has passed since the operation of the inverter circuit 8 is stopped, an instantaneous power failure (a case where the voltage supply from the AC power supply 1 stops instantaneously) Instead, for example, it is determined that the voltage supply from the AC power supply 1 is stopped for a long time, such as the breaker 2 is intentionally turned off, and the inrush current prevention relay 4 is turned off.

  As described above, the power conversion device according to the present embodiment stops the operation of generating the AC voltage for driving the motor 10 by the inverter circuit 8 when the bus voltage (the voltage across the smoothing capacitor 6) drops to a certain value. As a result, the smoothing capacitor 6 is charged by the voltage regenerated from the motor 10. Thereby, it can suppress that an excessive inrush current flows at the time of an instantaneous power failure, and destruction of the diode bridge used for the rectifier circuit 3 can be prevented. In addition, inexpensive diode bridges with low current surge resistance and diode bridges made of wide band gap semiconductors such as SiC (silicon carbide) with low surge resistance but low loss can be used. Cost and high efficiency can be realized. Further, since the smoothing capacitor 6 is charged by the regenerative voltage to increase the voltage at both ends, it is not necessary to charge the smoothing capacitor 6 via the inrush current preventing resistor 5 when the power is restored, and its resistance component (inrush current preventing resistor) is eliminated. The loss due to 5) can be reduced. Further, since the smoothing capacitor 6 is charged using the regenerative voltage during the instantaneous power failure, for example, when the DC / DC power source 11 is generated from the bus voltage, the system instantaneous power failure due to the disappearance of the DC / DC power source 11 is achieved. Yield strength (instantaneous power failure tolerance of a system comprising a DC / DC power supply 11 and a device operating using the same) can be improved. It can also be applied to a Chemicon-less system that does not have the smoothing capacitor 6 (the system instantaneous power failure tolerance can be improved).

Embodiment 2. FIG.
In the first embodiment described above, the smoothing capacitor 6 is charged using the regenerative voltage. However, the switching element 13 in the inverter circuit 8, which is a current path by the regenerative voltage, is replaced with a wide band with low loss. You may form by a gap semiconductor. Examples of the wide band gap semiconductor include silicon carbide, a gallium nitride-based material, and diamond. By using these wide band gap semiconductors, voltage drop can be reduced and energy efficiency can be improved.

  As described above, in the power conversion device of the present embodiment, the free wheel diode 9 constituting the inverter circuit 8 is formed of a wide band gap semiconductor. Thereby, an energy efficient power converter can be realized.

  As described above, the power converter according to the present invention is suitable for a power converter that generates an AC voltage for driving a motor.

1 AC power supply, 2 breaker, 3 rectifier circuit, 4 inrush current prevention relay, 5 inrush current prevention resistor, 6 smoothing capacitor, 7 bus voltage detection circuit, 8 inverter circuit, 9 freewheel diode, 10 motor, 11 DC / DC power supply , 12 Microcomputer (MCU), 13 Switching element.

Claims (2)

A smoothing capacitor that smoothes the DC voltage;
An inverter circuit for generating an AC voltage for driving a motor by converting a bus voltage which is a DC voltage after being smoothed by the smoothing capacitor;
Control means for controlling the operation of the inverter circuit based on the bus voltage;
With
When the control means detects that the bus voltage has fallen below a predetermined threshold value, the control means stops the motor drive AC voltage generation operation by the inverter circuit, and the motor to which the motor drive AC voltage is supplied When the smoothing capacitor is charged using the regenerative voltage generated in step S5 and the generation of the AC voltage for driving the motor by the inverter circuit is stopped, the inrush current to the smoothing capacitor is suppressed when a certain time has elapsed. An inrush current preventing relay connected in parallel with the inrush current preventing resistor is turned off .   The power converter according to claim 1, wherein a wide band gap semiconductor is used as a switching element forming the inverter circuit.

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