Fanuc AC spindle motor with Emerson SP unidrive?

Hi i have a Fanuc AC spindle motor (induction motor A06B-0844-B200#3000), i would like to run this from an Emerson Unidrive SP and im interested in the closed loop functionality of this drive, as this motor does not have an internal encoder an external one would be mounted on the output shaft, i would like to use this for indexing/positioning similar to a servo motor for C-axis and rigid tapping, is this possible and does anyone have any experience using these drives? Any help is greatly appreciated Thanks.

Yes, would work. Seek out "motion guru," he has done that I am sure.

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I did some research on this drive for a retrofit and talked to their technical reps. I think what you are proposing would work. It is important to figure out how the drive will figure out the position of the rotor for commutation at start-up if you need it to move predictably during the start up sequence.

Absolutely possible and we have done it hundreds of times . . . the drive has great documentation and I’d be happy to help if you run into any snags.

motion guru said:

Absolutely possible and we have done it hundreds of times . . . the drive has great documentation and I’d be happy to help if you run into any snags.

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Baron, I would strongly recommend you ask Motion Guru for assistance and this retrofit will go as smoothly as possible... For instance, without accepting his expert advice, you will have a hard time figuring out the proper base speed VOLTAGE rating for this motor; Fanuc typically had very low base speed voltage so they couuld extend the high speed range without going into breakdown...

Sbaer, actually the vector drive handles startup just fine on these motors. Remember, this is an induction motor, not PM synchronous motor. So even at standstill or startup the drive is outputing a rotating nonsynchronous rotating magnetic field running at the slip frequency - no alignment with the rotor at all.

Hi guys thanks for the input and help i will be using an emerson unidrive SP3403 supply is 415v 3ph, feedback will be an incremental rotary encoder most probably 2500ppr with the index pulse, the drive pulley on the spindle is 180mm dia 14M HTD 50mm wide and i will be driving it 1:1 not sure what would be best either to mount the pulley on the shaft of the motor directly and tensioning via the motor bracket, or supporting the pulley via 2 bearing blocks either side on a tensioning mechanism with a shaft keyed and shrink fit to the motor to remove the side load from the belt tension on the motor bearings, i could then mount the feedback encoder opposite the motor (alignment is not a problem as all the parts are to be surface ground and scraped to tolerance) also can the encoder output signals that are forwarded through the drive i/o be used for the encoder input on the cnc controller to save having one encoder for the drive feedback loop and another for threading etc? Would also like to do rigid tapping and C-axis milling if thats possible with this type of setup.
Pics of machine build to follow also..
Cheers!