Industrial Engineer · phase 12 of 16 · noun

Acceleration Time

Configured time for the drive to ramp between defined low and high frequency reference points.

The Explain card

Plain English: Acceleration time is how long the drive takes to ramp from one frequency to another, usually specified as the time from zero to maximum. Every increase in the reference is spread over that ramp.
Example: A conveyor's acceleration time is set to 8 seconds. A start from rest to 60 hertz takes 8 seconds, and a step from 30 to 45 takes 2.
Why it matters: A short ramp starts a machine hard, spills product and pushes the current to the limit. A long ramp makes it sluggish. It is one of the first parameters set and one of the first blamed, and the current limit can quietly stretch it.
Hook: How gently the drive leans into the throttle.

How the word is built, where it came from, and what it sits beside in memory.

In a sentence

Set Acceleration Time to 10 seconds, then verify that the conveyor motor starts without tripping the variable frequency drive on overcurrent.

Why these words

acceleration Latin acceleratio, a hastening identifies the increasing-speed portion of the phrase
time Old English tīma, a limited span identifies the measured duration

Where it came from

Origin: English engineering compound formed from acceleration and time
Entered the language: 20th century
What changed: Acceleration developed from the general sense of hastening into a physics term, then joined time in industrial control terminology.

How it is spelled

Pattern: Verbs ending in -ate commonly form nouns in -ation by dropping the final e.
Pattern: The double c in accelerate is retained in acceleration.

Spelled like

Broken into chunks

What it sits beside

Same subject

Same shape

drive timing parameters

drive ramp terms

Phase 12: VFD Commands, References, and Stopping

Starting, referencing and stopping, including the several very different things a drive can mean by the word stop.