Looking for a cheap AC Drive

Hi, I found this forum some days ago and it looks to have a lot of experience around here.

I'm buying nearly 250 0.5HP and 40 3HP drives a year and I'm looking if I can reduce my cost. So I'm looking for a cheap drive din-rail mountable with modbus comm and NEMA 1 option. It's mainly for conveyor purposes.

I've found the AutomationDirect GS1 and GS2. I've read good post on this drive.

Do you know about other cheap drive I can take a look at?
Thank you for your time!
Yan

you should be contacting as many drive manufacturers and suppliers as you can, i am very sure with that quantity many would be interested in winning that order, and many will be very flexible on the cost to win the order over a competitor, you would be best checking the support in your area.

cheers

myles

Thanks Myles,

I'm already in "quoting" procedure with dealers here but none of them are in the range of price of AutomationDirect. In fact, at best, they are around 30 to 40% more expensive. It's a lot of money considering around 250 drives.

Yan

I would keep in mind when you are considering cost the price of vendor support. Will Automation Direct supply the necessary support for your quantity of drives, or will the 30-40% you save be eaten up by the amount of time you have to spend looking for a solution?

Sometimes the cost savings are not justified when you consider the intangibles. Good vendor support is well worth the extra cost.

On the other end, look into ABB drives. They have a range of models for the HP you specify. Size is reasonable, not sure about DIN-rail mounting.

yanos25 said:

Hi, I found this forum some days ago and it looks to have a lot of experience around here.

I'm buying nearly 250 0.5HP and 40 3HP drives a year and I'm looking if I can reduce my cost. So I'm looking for a cheap drive din-rail mountable with modbus comm and NEMA 1 option. It's mainly for conveyor purposes.

I've found the AutomationDirect GS1 and GS2. I've read good post on this drive.

Do you know about other cheap drive I can take a look at?
Thank you for your time!
Yan

Click to expand...

Not sure about their distribution centers by you but I have been using the Lenze/AC Tech SMV series drives. Vector drives as cheap as they get here in the States. Though, we do get a special pricing just because we use the SMVs on everything we build.
Range: 0.5 - 10 HP.
1 or 3 phase input depending on the models.
Plus you can use one to burn everything on the built-in EPROM and just make as many copies as you want to plug into the rest if the set up is identical. (Comes with the unit, no extra charge)
So far (almost 2.5 years) never had a single failure.
Largest one I've used: 7.5HP

yanos25 said:

Hi, I found this forum some days ago and it looks to have a lot of experience around here.

I'm buying nearly 250 0.5HP and 40 3HP drives a year and I'm looking if I can reduce my cost. So I'm looking for a cheap drive din-rail mountable with modbus comm and NEMA 1 option. It's mainly for conveyor purposes.

I've found the AutomationDirect GS1 and GS2. I've read good post on this drive.

Do you know about other cheap drive I can take a look at?
Thank you for your time!
Yan

Click to expand...

IMHO, you can't beat Automation direct. Price is good, support is excellent.

Thank you all for your reply...

I understand dYoast when you're talking about support. But even if the dealer is near, sometime you don't have more support. I'll keep reading forums to see what others think about AutomationDirect.

Meanwhile I will take a look at ABB and Lenze. I think one of the best dealer I already have can stock the AcTech.

Thanks again!
Yan

Take a look at Yaskawa.....programing sux.....but the price is not too bad and the drives are phucking bulletproof