Presently, expectations for drive and power supply solutions to achieve energy savings and meet environmental needs are increasing worldwide. In response to these needs, Fuji Electric has formulated a medium-term strategy with our drive business positioned as a core business. Fuji Electric's drive business provides solutions for four target fields: industry and society, transportation, energy and the environment, and components. Fuji Electric is working to expand this business by reorganizing our business structure from the customers' perspective, strengthening our system solution business, and continuing to supply the world’s highest level of components.

Power electronics equipment permeates a wide range of fields, from home electronic appliances to industrial and social infrastructures, and contributes to the realization of energy savings, productivity improvements, and the efficient utilization of electric power energy. Fuji Electric supplies distinctive product groups for a wide range of fields and applications, and in order to provide next-generation products that are both appealing and responsive to market needs, Fuji Electric is enhancing its strength in the basic technologies of power conversion circuit technology, control technology and power equipment technology and is advancing development of the core technology of power electronics so as to establish a power electronics platform.

Fuji Electric's lineup of drive devices ranges from 10 kVA (400 Vclass) to 10 MVA (3.3 kV-class). Drive systems, including servo systems, support the high-precision speed control, speed matching performance, torque control and higher-speed response required for manufacturing processes in plants for the industrial and public sectors. Higher reliability against instantaneous voltage drops and power failures is requested of power supplies, and high-voltage large-capacity unintertuptible power supply units are being provided.

In the transportation sector which accounts for 20% of the CO₂ emissions in all of Japan, the railroad and shipping modes of transport are highly energy efficient, environmentally friendly, can handle large quantities, operate at high speeds, and are safe and cost effective. Fuji Electric is actively moving forward with research and development, anticipating the market needs for energy savings and low environmental impact; and as a solution for the transportation sector, provides power electronics products and services, based on its drive and power supply technology, for railroad cars and ships that can contribute to society.

Fuji Electric supplies power electronics technology for energysaving solutions in the energy and environmental fields. For example, at an IDC (internet data center), not only do we recommend increasing the efficiency of built-in power circuitry in such IT (information technology) devices as UPS and servers, but also propose energy-saving solutions for air-conditioners and related equipment. In the industrial field, Fuji Electric provides energy-saving solutions for elevators and also provides emergency power supplies that satisfy customer's needs. In the natural energy field, Fuji Electric helps lessen the burden on the environment through saving energy with high-efficiency power conditioners for use with solar cells.

General-purpose inverters have been used in a wide range of industrial fields, in applications with fans and pumps, transportation machinery, elevators, processing machines and so on, and have achieved good results. Fuji Electric has developed a lineup of new products in response to requests for further energy savings to reduce CO₂ emissions, improved safety of equipment and machinery, and for a broader range of applications to transportation machinery. We have also developed new servo system products that do not only emphasize performance, but also help reduce total system cost, facilitate a simple system configuration, are easy to use, and enable a reduction in the development and setup time of a servo system. This paper also presents several application examples.

Drive systems enjoy a rapid rate of technological innovation and a frequent supply of new products. Fuji Electric has built a customer service system capable of rapidly responding to such a changing landscape. A worldwide service network is provided to ensure that drive systems configured from a combination of high-voltage and electronic components can operate stably for a long period of time. This service consists of a component supply management system, a customer data management system and a remote monitoring system, and is provided as a lifecycle service that combines such predictive maintenance technology as inverter diagnostics, rotating machinery insulation diagnostics, rotating machinery vibration diagnostics, and so on.