STO (Safe Torque OFF)
Tags: Electrical safety
STO (Safe Torque OFF) function refers to the functional safety of the machine, not to the electrical safety. STO guarantees that there will be no torque on the motor, so the machine is not able to move. Therefore the machine can not make any damage to persons or property. If you need to make any maintenance to the motor/machine you will have to remove the power supply to the machine (to the inverter) in order to ensure the electrical safety.
The big advantage of STO function is that it can replace the contactors at the output of the inverter, thus giving the following advantages:
I am completely convinced that the present and future trend is to use the functional safety functions (like STO) embedded in the inverter, giving a lot of advantages to the machine builder or system integrator.
These are the reasons why inverter companies like Gozuk are making a big effort to include functional safety functions in the inverter.
The big advantage of STO function is that it can replace the contactors at the output of the inverter, thus giving the following advantages:
- No wear of the contactors, with virtual unlimited number of stop/start operations
- Cheaper and easier installation, because you are saving the output contactors
- Better EMC behavior (there is a perfect continuity of the motor cable shield)
- No acoustic noise due to the contactors (in some applications like elevators acoustic noise is relevant)
I am completely convinced that the present and future trend is to use the functional safety functions (like STO) embedded in the inverter, giving a lot of advantages to the machine builder or system integrator.
These are the reasons why inverter companies like Gozuk are making a big effort to include functional safety functions in the inverter.
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