ABB’s one millionth standard drive has rolled off the production line – the company’s first drive product to hit this figure. The standard drives, which entered production in 2003, are now made in five factories on three continents and are now one of the world’s best-selling family of drives.

Standard drives (shown above) are one of ABB’s three drives product families. The others are industrial and machinery drives.

ABB launched the drives in a bid to enter markets which were showing a strong potential but in which it had a small market share at the time. These included the building automation and food and beverage markets, with applications typically involving pumps and fans and other variable-torque and basic constant-torque loads, such as conveyors.

“When it was launched, it had several novelties like an intuitive user interface and swinging choke technology for harmonic reduction,” recalls Steve Ruddell, general manager of ABB’s drives and motors business in the UK. “The control panel in particular has been a trend-setter with many competitors now adapting some of its user-friendly features. The concept behind the drive was clearly ahead of its time, and is now the model adopted by many.”

Development of the standard drive is continuing. “Our drives must continuously evolve to meet the demands of our customers and the ABB standard drive is a good example of how the technology is improving over time,” says Ruddell.