The gloves come off as ABB lays into low-end drives market

ABB has launched a new drive into the fiercely competitive bottom end of the UK market with an aggressive campaign that, unusually, compares the new ACS350 drive with its rivals.

ABB argues that its "general machinery drive" (above) is smaller and cheaper than most of its competitors. For example, it says that the 5.5kW model (from a range spanning ratings from 0.37-7.5kW) is 58% smaller than a Siemens MM440 with the same output, and 2.5% cheaper than its nearest rival, Schneider`s Telemecanique Altivar 31. According to ABB, the new drive is also 30% cheaper than Rockwell`s comparable PowerFlex 40 and 16% cheaper than Parker SSD`s Eurotherm 650.