ABB is breaking into the highvolume, low cost small drives arena with the launch of its ACS 100 AC drive rated from 0.37kW to 2.2kW.

”Small drives are not new to ABB. The ACS 200 and ACS 300 are both low power AC drives which have been available for over four years. But even these drives can appear over-engineered for many applications,” says Tuomo Merentie, Sales and Marketing Director at ABB Industry, Helsinki.
”Entering this market means our existing customers can now obtain a solution for all their drives applications from 0.37 kW upwards,” says Merentie.
Small drives in the power range below 2.2kW, including 200V and 400V, are now recognised as the fastest growing AC drives market worldwide, accounting for some 25% of global sales. By the end of the century small drives are expected to account for over 30% of the total drives bought worldwide.
For drives below 2.2kW, 60% of users are OEMS while end-users account for 40% of the market. ”ABB has built a strong relationship with OEMs by providing tailored drives solutions to this sector for years,” says Merentie. ”Entering the low power market will strengthen our relationship.”
”Presently, only 3% of motors up to 2.2kW sold annually worldwide are controlled by inverters. Clearly, there is a huge potential to use variable speed control on small motors,” says Merentie.
The ACS 100 will be competitively priced and will enhance ABB’s position as the market leader in AC drives.
”We have built our reputation in medium and high power drives and systems - an area which still has significant growth and one in which we will continue to dominate.
”But with one mindset we cannot master the whole market any more - we need two mindsets: one looking after this high power range and the other to understand the technology and manufacturing associated with making very small drives. We now have the manufacturing techniques and sales and marketing organisations in place to satisfy the small drives market.”
Advances in electronics manufacturing has allowed electronic components to be more densely packed. This has led to better heat dissipation from small areas, which together with improvements in castings and plastic parts, has resulted in an extremely reliable compact drive - the ACS 100.
According to Merentie, in the long term, market penetration and an even bigger growth in small drives will be seen as they take over functions traditionally the domain of electromechanical and direct-on-line devices. ”97% of motors need to be controlled somehow but variable speed drives are not always the first choice. And that is what we are working to change at the moment.”
ABB plans to bring the drives to market in a variety of ways depending on the sales structure in the country concerned. In most markets, ABB has already built up an extensive sales and distributor network that will play a key role in getting the product to market. Other market channels that will be used include, direct sales to OEMs; catalogue sales; direct mail; and, eventually, via the Internet./ins


For further information please contact:
Asea Brown Boveri S.R.O.
Industry Systems Division
Sladkovicova 54
97401 Banska Bystrica
Tel. 088 62324
Fax. 088 62325