Technical Announcement

DELTA ELECTRONICS, INC. Industrial Automation B.U.

Product

Publish Division

AMD

Models

All VFD
Series

Security
Classification

5General
Confidential
Top-secret

ECN No.
N/A
Issue No.
Application
116A-FE-xxx-09B05-G-01-01
Engineering Publisher Alan Chou Released Date
11/05/2009

Receiving Div.

Guide For Capacitor Recharging in Delta AC Motor Drives

1. Recharging
The drive DC link capacitors need to be recharged if the drive has been non-operational for more than
one year. Without recharging, capacitors may be damaged when the drive starts to operate. The
recharging methods are introduced in this instruction. Please make sure the drive has been stocked in
clean and dry condition before performing recharge. It was recommended to recharge the capacitors
once a year.
1.1

How to check the drives age

Check the date of manufacture for the drive from the serial number shown on the drive label. The serial
number tells the year and the week when the drive was manufactured.
Take VFD007B23A label for example,

1.2

Recharging Time

The intermediate circuit of the drive is kept in its nominal voltage for a period of time will wake up the
capacitors. The recharging time required depends on how long the drive has been stocked
(non-operational).
See figure 1.

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1.3

Drives stocked for less than 2 years

Supply the power to the drive for a period given in figure 1 (Method 1). The drive wakes up its
capacitors by itself. Power drives up once a year to keep the capacitors in good and operational
condition.
1.4

Drives stocked for 2 years and over

Use method 2A to recharge capacitors if the drives have been stocked for two or more than two years.

WARNING: Disconnect the mains supply while the reforming circuit is connected.

a) Method 2
Capacitors are recharged by switching in a rectifier and resistor circuit, which is connected to the drive
input. The recharging circuit is shown in figure 2. Circuit components values for difference voltage are
shown in table 1.

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Figure 2. The reforming circuit for method 2.

2.

Replacement

The drive intermediate circuit works by several electrolytic capacitors. Capacitor life can be extended
by lowering the ambient temperature.
It is not possible to predict capacitor failure. Capacitor failure is usually caused by input power fuse
failure or a fault trip. Contact Delta if capacitor failure is suspected. Replacements of Delta AC motor
drive capacitors are available from Delta. Do not use other than Delta specified spare parts.

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