Mitsubishi AC Controller forElectric Vehicles
GENERAL MACHINERY & SPECIAL VEHICLE HEADQUARTERS
MATERIAL HANDLING EQUIPMENT BUSINESS DEPARTMENT

Responding to market demands for high-power, maintenance-free, electric forklift trucks, the use of AC motors
for traveling and material handling has been rapidly increasing. In order to meet the rapid changes in themarket, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. (MHI) has
developed a new controller series. A conventional controller consists of units, which each have a different
function, integrated on one base plate. As this new controller consists of units which are made into one module
by function, it has become possible to support various
types of vehicles in a short period. It can support various driving types and batteries, ranging from warehousetrucks such as pallet and reach fork trucks to the counterbalance type of three-wheel and four-wheel vehicles.
This new type of controller is applicable not only to battery forklift trucks but to all kinds of industrial truckthat use batteries as their power source.

systems. As a software library with standardized
basic performance such as signal input and output
and communication control are available, application
software can be easily developed.
(2) Inverter
In order to obtain compactness, high power andhigh efficiency, both the hardware and software havethe following characteristics:
Reduced heat resistance by adoption of an insulated
metal substrate.
Reduced energy loss by adoption of low-loss MOSFET(metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor).
Reduced motor loss and inverter loss through increasing the voltage utilization factor by adopting anovermodulation control.
(3) Remote input/output unit
This is used when the logics unit alone is notenough for the interface.

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1. Product Specifications
Figure 1 shows the system configuration, and Tables
1 to 3 show the major specifications of the controller.

Table 1 Major specifications of logics unit
Item
Dimensions

2. Characteristics
As the controllers, which are modularized by function, are connected via a CAN-bus (controller areanetwork), the configuration can be flexibly changed according to the number of motor shafts and interfaces.
(1) Logics unit
This is a CPU unit for vehicle control which has
the various interfaces necessary for standard vehicle

LUB(mm)W 248 x D 154 x H 43

Nominal input voltage (v)24/36/48/72/80

Operating temperature
range(degrees C)-20 to 60
Digital input, analog input, PWM output,
digital output, serial communication (CAN)Interface

Table 2 Major specifications of inverter
Type

Items

Nominal input voltage (v)

BuIVA
1-24

IVA
1-48

2436/48 72/80

CAN

Operating temperature
range(degrees C)
Max. current

Remoteoutput unit

IVA
1-80

IVA
2-24

IVA
2-48

IVA
2-80

(mm) W 150 x D 250 x H 130 W 250 x D 280 x H 130

Dimensions

InverterType(Arms)2436/48 72/80-20 to 60
500

400200

1 000

800

400

Table 3 Major specifications of remote I/O unit
ItemDashdisplaydispla
RS-232C
Remoteinput unit

Type

RI01

RI02

W 173 x D 97x H 31
Dimensions(mm) W 78x D 102x H 30
Operating temperature-20 to 60
range(degrees C)

Logics unit

Interface

Service
Service toolFig. 1 System configuration

PWM output, serialcommunication(CAN)

Digital input, analog
input, encoder input,
serial communication(CAN)

PWM: Pulse Width Modulation

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd.
Technical Review Vol. 44 No. 2 (Jul. 2007)

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