What are the best AC drives?
- Thread starter jpm555
- Start date
rta53
Lifetime Supporting Member
We use mostly AB Powerflex, but it's sort of like asking what's the best car to buy.
OkiePC
Lifetime Supporting Member
I have 95% Allen Bradley drives that are easy to work with, and program. I have not found them to be more reliable or more capable than some of the other brands I have worked with. We have a pretty high failure rate for the <5HP Powerflex 4 and 40s. These drives are less reliable than the 15 year old 160 series drives we're still supporting.
I have a dozen Yaskawa drives that have been 100% trouble free for four years.
I did have two ABB drives that were also trouble free but they were taken out of service about a year ago.
I have a dozen Yaskawa drives that have been 100% trouble free for four years.
I did have two ABB drives that were also trouble free but they were taken out of service about a year ago.
504bloke
Lifetime Supporting Member
SSD Drives for me - Used them for 25+ years..
i had the same though....this question is a fashion stile...the answer will be "colored" according to what make them better....
Ease of use
Lifetime
Quality
Resistance against bad conditions
Efficienty
Size
Enclosure Rating possibility (Making a 4x with a normal VFD is painfull VS a molded case...)
Manufacturer support
Availibility of components
etc.
I use Siemens mostly MM440 and some G130/Master series and like them, we don't seem much issue with any internal parts but programming could be a little bit more simple for most dayly application...like AB
I used to work with little ABB and loved the way it can be programmed for easy applications but i expect the bigger model to be as complex as others brand
OkiePC
Lifetime Supporting Member
It's true, the word "best" lacks a technical definition. Most of us know what we mean when we say best, but we probably weigh in things like cost and ease of use in addition to a heavy weight on reliability, along with all sorts of other more subjective things...
One man's "best" is probably another man's "junk", huh?
One man's "best" is probably another man's "junk", huh?
The Plc Kid
Member
We have AB,Siemens,Yaskawa,ABB,Toshiba,SSD, all in the same site.
IMHO all the major player are about the same as far as reliability and functions. Also IMHO to me AB is my first choice because we use more AB plc's and HMI's than we do other brands and the AB drives integrate with there own products best.
IMHO the AB drive are also easier to setup and program
I really like the powerflex 750 series drives primarily the 755 best.
IMHO all the major player are about the same as far as reliability and functions. Also IMHO to me AB is my first choice because we use more AB plc's and HMI's than we do other brands and the AB drives integrate with there own products best.
IMHO the AB drive are also easier to setup and program
I really like the powerflex 750 series drives primarily the 755 best.
i think you have to weigh installation.with proper installs I estimate i install 1 powerflex drive with/or/without line reactor per month for past 5 years and have had just one fail that one was within first hour. replaced it and it is still running today.
Clay B.
Lifetime Supporting Member
Prime example for me as one man's best and is my idea of junk is the Powerflex 700 series. Personally I find the wiring pitiful, the programming buggy and the price is ridiculous. But that is my opinion. The only thing I can see that is a plus for it is when you can drop it into a Control Logix/ Compact Logix program. Even that can be a PITA at times.
To be honest what I have seen is each family/brand of drives have their pluses and minuses. I guess it is really what you are trying to do that decides what you need.
For what I do here I use the AcTech SMVector drives. For me these are great drives. We find them very reliable and they do not have the others price tag.
Manglemender
Member
Many people have said that they preffer the AB drives and it's interesting to note that most respondents are from the USA where use of AB PLCs is more common, I suspect that if you questioned only european or only Japanese engineers you might get different answers. "Best" doesn't really cut it and some drives are, inevevitable, suited better to certain applications. User experience and familiarity also plays a huge part in being able to get the most out of any given drive.
For my own prefference, I use SSD drives for stand alone applications and Siemens drives for systems but are they better? That is a difficult question to answer. I'm commissioning a PLC upgrade this week (S5 -S7) with some 20 year old Siemens Masterdives; They aren't very friendly to use and they lack features but they still work, does that make then good drives?
Nick
For my own prefference, I use SSD drives for stand alone applications and Siemens drives for systems but are they better? That is a difficult question to answer. I'm commissioning a PLC upgrade this week (S5 -S7) with some 20 year old Siemens Masterdives; They aren't very friendly to use and they lack features but they still work, does that make then good drives?
Nick
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