"The drives met our strict performance criteria and our quality assurance requirements, which were key to making this agreement happen, " said Bruce Burdon, director of Product Management and Marketing for Carrier's North America Commercial Division. "The drives already are being utilized in our commercial products, and the customer response has been extremely positive," he said.

"It is an honor to be part of this arrangement - and it marries together the technology of two of the strongest suppliers to the HVAC industry, " said Jeff Miller, HVAC sales manager for ABB, Low-Voltage Drives. "End users gain the most, because the features and ease-of-use benefits make equipment installation and start up faster than ever."

Software developed by ABB for the drives that Carrier purchases asks commission technicians a short list of qualifying questions. Based on the answers, the drive is designed to self-set the parameters and proceed to the start mode rapidly. "That kind of built-in macro can relieve the engineer from setting numerous parameters, one-by-one," Miller noted.

"The ACH550 drives that Carrier now offers feature a user-friendly control keypad, modeled after a cell-phone design, and utilize full language rather than codes," said Ron Ball, national accounts manager for ABB, Low-Voltage Drives.

For more information on the ACH550 drives, visit http://abb-drives.info/ach550/.

Publication date: 10/18/2004