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Smartphone app tells you how to fix drives faults
Published:  05 January, 2015

At the recent SPS IPC Drives show, ABB announced a series of enhancements for its ACS880 industrial drives, including a smartphone app that reads a QR code that is generated on the drive’s display in the event of a fault. The Drivebase app (available for Android and iOS mobile devices) accesses ABB’s service site which delivers information about the error and possible remedies, without the operator having to consult a manual.

Another new arrival is a range of regenerative single drives in cabinets that can recover braking energy and feed it into the supply network. The drives cover the power range 250–3,200kW and the voltage range 380–690V. ABB’s DTC (Direct Torque Control) technology allows smooth transitions between the motoring and regenerating modes. The drives are said to guarantee full motor voltage, even when the supply voltage is below nominal, and can deliver unity power factor. They are protected to IP22 as standard, with IP42 and IP54 available as options.

Another new arrival is a low-harmonic, cabinet-built single drive designed for use on weak supply networks where harmonics can be critical. The drive produces extremely low harmonics, without needing external filters or multi-pulse transformers. The drives cover the same power and voltage ranges as the regenerative versions and incorporate the same active supplies to boost output voltages.

One of ABB's new ACS880 cabinet-built, regenerative single drives

There is also a new ACS880 regenerative rectifier unit (RRU), equipped with a separate L-filter module. By limiting IGBT switching to one pulse per cycle, the RRU is said to get more power out of the same power module than an IGBT supply, making it more cost-effective for regenerative applications and for voltage dips.