N100L Yaskawa Control Cabinet

N100L Yaskawa Control Cabinet 

In the evolving world of vertical transportation, building owners and elevator manufacturers demand solutions that deliver efficiency, compactness, smooth ride quality, and low maintenance — all while conforming to the latest safety and energy regulations. The Yaskawa N100L Control Cabinet is engineered to meet those demands, offering a fully integrated elevator control solution that seamlessly blends precision, performance and flexibility.

Design & Architecture

The N100L control cabinet features a unified architecture that houses the power electronics (VVVF drive), motor control unit, safety logic, door control, and building integration functions within a single enclosure. This design reduces wiring complexity, simplifies installation and commissioning, and reduces potential fault points. The modular layout ensures service access to key components (breakers, drive modules, controllers) with minimal disruption, supporting efficient maintenance and diagnostics.

Because the N100L is optimized for machine-room-less (MRL) or restricted machine-room environments, its form factor is compact, and its thermal design is refined to handle continuous elevator operation in tight spaces. With intelligent airflow management, filtered fan cooling and high-efficiency components, the cabinet maintains reliable performance while minimising heat and vibration.

Performance & Ride Comfort

At its core, the N100L features a high-performance microprocessor/PLC-based control engine coupled with vector or vector-plus control algorithms. This ensures precise motor speed and torque management, enabling smooth acceleration/deceleration, accurate floor‐leveling and exceptional ride comfort. Whether controlling induction or permanent-magnet traction machines, the system adapts dynamically to load changes and maintains consistent operation under heavy cycle loads.

The control cabinet supports variable speed ranges, enabling building designers to specify speeds tailored to usage scenarios—from 1.0 m/s for low-rise residential applications to higher speeds for commercial or high-rise installations. Because the system integrates regenerative or energy-optimal drive strategies, energy consumption is reduced, and noise/vibration is minimised, yielding a premium passenger experience.

Flexibility & Integration

One of the major strengths of the N100L cabinet is its flexibility. It supports a wide range of elevator configurations: single elevator installations up to duplex/quadruplex setups, and group control systems managing multiple cars across many floors. Building automation systems, fire-service integration, and remote diagnostics all are supported via open or standard communication protocols.

For elevators undergoing modernization, the N100L offers retrofit-capability: the cabinet can interface with existing motor/rope setups, door systems, and shafts, making it an ideal choice for upgrading older elevators to a modern, energy-efficient gearless standard without full machine-room overhaul.

Safety, Reliability & Maintenance

Yaskawa has engineered the N100L with reliability and safety in mind. The electronics are housed in a protective enclosure rated for indoor use (with options for harsher environments). As noted in Yaskawa’s protective enclosure guidelines, their cabinets offer differing levels of protection (NEMA 1, NEMA 12, NEMA 3R/4X) with thicker sheet-metal, gaskets, filtered ventilation and fan cooling. 

Redundant safety circuits monitor door locks, overspeed, overshoot, braking, and load imbalance. The maintenance module logs fault codes and runtime data, making preventive maintenance easier and reducing downtime. Quick-connect wiring, modular plug-in units and intuitive display panels help service engineers perform fast inspections, minimise errors and bring the elevator back into service swiftly.

Energy Efficiency & Sustainability

In a time when energy efficiency and carbon reduction are paramount, the N100L stands out. By combining high-efficiency drives, optimized cooling and intelligent control software, the cabinet reduces power losses, regenerates braking energy (where applicable), and supports “sleep” or standby modes when idle. This helps building owners reduce operational costs, meet sustainability targets and deliver greener elevator systems.

Applications & Ideal Use-Cases

The Yaskawa N100L Control Cabinet is ideal for:

• Residential low- to mid-rise buildings, where space is constrained and quiet, smooth operation is essential.

• Commercial offices, hotels and hospitals, where traffic is heavier and ride comfort plus system reliability matter.

• High-rise towers or luxury apartments, particularly when paired with a gearless traction machine and group control configuration.

• Modernization projects, where older hoist-machines or geared systems are being upgraded to achieve better performance and lower maintenance.