ABB Drives ACS580 or ACS880 – What are the differences?

In this blog article, ABB’s George Dodwell takes a look at ABB Drives ACS580 and the ACS880 and looks at the differences between these two General Purpose Drives.

In the world of variable speed drives selecting the correct unit for your requirements can be a minefield, but it can be a straightforward process so I’m hoping to share a few points to consider to aid when choosing the drive that will best work for your application. Do you need crane control? Do you need DTC? Do you need an ultra low harmonic drive? These are just a few of the considerations, the important thing is to make sure we select the right drive for the application.

Let’s start at the beginning by comparing the two main families of drive. We have the ACS580, which is the general allrounder and a true leader in its class, an outstanding drive in its own right and we have the ACS880 which is the next level up, this drive offers a much wider range of features which are available in the variable speed drive as standard.

Let’s take a look at what is included in the ACS580 and what comes in the ACS880:

Feature	ACS580	ACS880
Power ratings possible	0.37-500KW	0.37KW-6000KW
Embedded PLC	No	Yes
Cooling Methods	Air / Flange	Air / Flange / Liquid
Direct Tourque control	No	Yes
Ultra Low Harmonic	No	Yes
Regenerative	No	Yes
Memory unit for Parameter Back up	No	Yes
Comms Network capacity	1	2

Key Features

So just to highlight  a few key features in a little more detail, the ZMU memory unit is one of my favourites. If on the rare occasion you have a drive fail, it can happen, the ZMU can save the day. You simply wire in the new drive and swap over the ZMU and you are back up and running with zero reprograming or configuration thanks to the memory unit.

Another of my favourite features of the ACS880 which is unique to this variable speed drive, is the application specific firmware we can embed within the drive, so whether the application is a crane, winch, or winder we have a pre-determined configuration which will help with ease set up and integration.

One of the main features of the ACS880 drive is the DTC (direct torque control) motor control mode can be used for more demanding applications e.g. crushers or extruders, where its dynamic torque reaction and open loop speed control can be a massive benefit.

In summary, both the ABB ACS580 and the ACS880 are truly excellent drives, for run of the mill scenarios, the ACS580 will give you all you need and for more complex arrangements and better flexibility the ACS880 will be the right solution. It all comes down to a correct assessment of the usage and then marrying up the right drive for the application. I am confident we can help you find the right drive for your application, whether it be complex motion or needing to talk to multiple different networks we have the drive to help you and please get in touch with the team at IDS who will be more than happy to help specify and get set up with the right drive for the application.