AC Drives... Which is the best?

How would your top-drives list be?

ABB, Control Tecniques, Allen Bradley, Omron , Telemecanique , Siemens... please add brands i forgot...

Have used many drives over many years!!
My absolute favourite is the GE/FUJI AF300-G11 and AF300-Mini.
Best price, easiest to setup, built in modbus comms. [Standard on G11, Mini requires adder card], extremely low failure rate, NEMA 12 rated packaging ........and on and on......

How could you forget Danfoss!!!

how about EUROTHERM DRIVES???? ninety five percent of our machinery used this kind of drive.

Eurotherm doesn't make drives anymore.

Now it's back to a the stand-alone company, SSD.

senen said:

how about EUROTHERM DRIVES???? ninety five percent of our machinery used this kind of drive.

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Originally posted by rdrast:

Now it's back to a the stand-alone company, SSD.

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...which was recently purchased lock, stock and barrel by Parker. Those poor SSD guys must not know which way is up by this time.

It was only a matter of time before drives would be covered by the old classic 'Which {insert your favorite component here} is the best' thread. Ahh, the inevitable pace of life.

Keith

PeterW said:

How could you forget Danfoss!!!

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Easily !!! Just my opinion



I vote SEW eurodrive...

Yaskawa is by far the best VFD. They have been marketed state side under various names, OMRON, IDM, PoWrMaster, Saftronics, Magnetek and EMS to name a few. Today they are marketed as Yaskawa.

I have worked on and programmed just about every brand name drive around and like the Yaskawa AC drives best. I like SSD/Eurotherm DC drives and more recently Bardac DC drives. Bardac is a group of former SSD types that Eurotherm made mad and they formed their own company.

kamenges said:

...which was recently purchased lock, stock and barrel by Parker. Those poor SSD guys must not know which way is up by this time.

It was only a matter of time before drives would be covered by the old classic 'Which {insert your favorite component here} is the best' thread. Ahh, the inevitable pace of life.

Keith

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SSD is right down the road from me. From the guys I know down there they are happpy to be bought by Parker. Now if they are still happy a year from now we will see.

geniusintraining said:

Easily !!! Just my opinion



I vote SEW eurodrive...

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Their Pilot Selection program rocks. And yes I know before anybody says it. It is the lazy way out tho let the software pick out your componets. But then again I never said I wasn't lazy.

emokar said:

How would your top-drives list be?

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Its the one (or more) you program and commission (just once), ship, and never hear about again.

Mitsubishi....IMO Jaguars....etc...

What do you think of Lenze

I have no idea about the best, the only drive that I never liked was AC-Tech, just had too many reliability issues. That may have been a fluke but never used any after that.

I used Magnetek alot and they were simple to setup etc but did not think they were brand labeled Yaskawa but did know Yaskawa bought them. We used the Magnetek 5HP GSD models to convert our paper converters from old type DC drives, they cost around $300 until Yaskawa took over then it increased to $500 and they changed the design. I forget what brand we switched too after that, will post if I remember.

One of my most dreaded PLC to deal with is ABB but they make one of the best drives you can find...just a personal opinion.

When it comes to DC drives I guess I will always think of Reliance first, expecially for larger motor applications. I have no problem with Dart or Dayton for small DC motors. I had to deal with a Magnetek DC drive once and hope that opportunity never prevails itself again.

It is hard to say what is best, too many variables involved. The best is any that you do not have to deal with once installed. If the drive fails then best would be good service and support to obtain repair or replacement quickly.

I would look more at what is best represented locally with availability and support.

rsdoran,

Yaskawa did not buy Magnetek, they bought the brand label back from them and OMRON IDM too. If you contact any former Magnetek dealer, you can get the same drives only they now say Yaskawa. Sounds like you got caught in the nomenclature crunch with the pricing. The newer Yaskawa labeled drives actually co$t le$$. If you were using the GPD 515 aka G5 the newer version G7 is costly. The F7 actually is the newer version G5 equivalent.

Coachman,

Lenze are right nice drives.