ABB NGPS-12 Gate Driver Power Supply Board – 857803 / 857804C for ACS600 MultiDrive R12i+ & NGDR

Description

Technical Specifications

Main Features and Advantages

Dedicated gate-driver power budget for large MultiDrive frames.​ The architectural reason the NGPS-12​ exists is that ACS600 MultiDrive R12i-and-up cabinets can host multiple inverter modules on a single common DC bus — a 6-MW rolling-mill MultiDrive might have three R12i inverter modules (2 MW each) hanging off one IGBT Supply Unit, each inverter module carrying six NGDR gate-driver boards (one per IGBT switch). That’s 18 NGDR boards drawing gate-driver quiescent current plus the switching gate-charge current on every PWM edge. If all that came from NPOW (the drive’s main auxiliary PSU, which also feeds NINT, NXPP, control panel, fans, I/O), NPOW would be oversized or would sag on heavy PWM. The NGPS-12​ offloads the ±15 V gate-driver rails and the +5 V logic rail, letting NPOW focus on control/I/O/fans. This partitioning is why a MultiDrive R10i (smaller) doesn’t have an NGPS — the gate-driver budget fits inside NPOW; R12i+ needs the partition, so ABB added the NGPS-12​ to the bill of materials.Reinforced multi-rail isolation per NGDR channel.​ The NGDR gate-driver boards sit directly adjacent to the IGBT modules — each NGDR watches one IGBT’s collector-emitter voltage, drives the gate through a fiber or hard-wire, and needs its own isolated +15 V / –15 V because the emitter potential of each IGBT in a phase-leg differs by the DC-bus voltage (several hundred volts to over 1 kV in 690 V-class MultiDrives). The NGPS-12​ generates these isolated rails with transformers that have reinforced insulation — the primary (24 V input side) is control-common, each secondary is floating at the respective IGBT-emitter potential. This galvanic isolation is what prevents a gate-driver supply short on one leg from propagating to the others and what protects the control-side NINT/NXPP from a power-stage transient. In DTC (Direct Torque Control) operation, where the PWM pattern is non-periodic and the IGBT switching can be aggressive, clean isolated gate-driver supply with low ripple (<50 mV typical) matters — the NGPS-12​ is specified to keep ripple tight so the NGDR’s gate-on threshold doesn’t wobble and induce torque jitter.Conformal-coat option for harsh-environment plants.​ The 857804C variant (the “C” in the order number = coated) carries a PCB lacquer pass — typically polyurethane or acrylic — that seals the solder joints, the transformer windings’ terminations, and the SMT components against moisture ingress, corrosive vapor (Cl₂, H₂S, SOₓ in pulp mills, desalination, chemical plants), and conductive dust (carbon black, metal fines in mining conveyor rooms). The standard 857803 is fine for clean motor-room cabinets (automotive, general manufacturing, water treatment pump houses), but once the cabinet shares a wall with a bleach plant or a salt-spray marine E-room, the 857804C is the right spare. The coating adds negligible thickness and doesn’t change the electricals — same BOM underneath, same firmware (none), same fit — so a plant can standardize on 857804C across all spares even if the live cabinets currently have 857803, and the swap is drop-in.Protection suite that propagates to the drive fault tree.​ The NGPS-12​ monitors its own input (undervoltage if the 24 V aux rail sags — e.g., NPOW failing, or DC-bus collapse) and its outputs (overcurrent if an NGDR shorts, overvoltage if a regulator pass-element fails, overtemperature if the drive cabinet ambient climbs past spec). When any protector trips, the NGPS pulls a fault line to NINT, and the drive logs “POW” or “PSU” in the fault word (31.xx series). This is invaluable for triage: if a MultiDrive R12i throws “PSU” on startup and the NPOW’s LEDs look good, the next suspect is NGPS-12​ — swap it, re-power, if the fault clears you’ve confirmed it. The protection is not a “self-clearing” type — once the NGPS latches fault, it stays latched until the drive is power-cycled (DC-bus discharge + 24 V control supply off), so a transient NPOW sag that trips NGPS won’t autorecover while the drive is live, forcing a deliberate restart — by design, because gate-driver supply anomalies are not something you want the drive to silently retry into.Part of the ACS600 MultiDrive modular ecosystem.​ The NGPS-12​ is not a standalone product you’d ever buy without an ACS600 MultiDrive or large ACS800 context — it lives or dies with the sibling boards. The IGBT Supply Unit parts list (from ABB’s MultiDrive doc) reads: Converter (ACN 634xxxx), converter cooling fans, DC fuses, NPOW, NINT, NXPP (R10i–4×R12i), NGPS (R12i+), NGDR (per IGBT). When a plant stocks MultiDrive spares, the NGPS-12​ is bundled with NPOW, NINT, a couple of NGDRs, and DC fuses — that’s the “power-section spare kit” for R12i+ cabinets. Because the NGPS has no firmware and no user-adjustment, a spare NGPS-12​ (857803 or 857804C) bought today drops into a 1998-vintage R12i MultiDrive and a 2010-vintage R14i the same way — the board’s BOM has been stable across ACS600 production years, with only the conformal-coat option added mid-life.

Application Field

The NGPS-12​ is found exclusively inside ABB ACS600 MultiDrive cabinets of frame R12i and larger, and in large-frame ACS800 drives that inherit the MultiDrive power-section architecture. The canonical MultiDrive application is common-DC-bus systems — several inverter modules sharing one rectifier/DC-bus so that regenerating axes (e.g., a downhill conveyor, an unwind stand, a hoist lowering) feed power back to the bus and motoring axes (the uphill conveyor, the winder, the hoist raising) consume it, reducing total line power. In these builds, the IGBT Supply Unit can be 1.5 m tall or more, hosting 2–4 inverter modules, and the NGPS-12​ sits in that Supply Unit’s power-section bay, feeding the NGDRs of all inverter modules in the unit. Rolling-mill main drives (roughing + finishing stands on a common bus), mine winder hoist + counterweight dual-converter on one bus, paper-machine calender-section multi-inverter on one bus, and cement-mill main + auxiliary on one bus are all typical MultiDrive R12i+ builds where the NGPS-12​ is live.Metals rolling is the densest domain. A hot-strip finishing train with 7 stands might run 3–4 MultiDrive cabinets (each R12i–R14i) with 2–3 inverter modules per cabinet; each inverter module has 6 NGDRs; the NGPS-12​ in each Supply Unit feeds 12–18 NGDRs. DTC demands low-ripple gate-driver supply because the PWM is asynchronous and gate-drive noise couples back into the current-measurement path — the NGPS-12‘s isolated, regulated ±15 V with <50 mV ripple is part of why DTC holds torque bandwidth to 0 Hz without a speed encoder. In these plants, the 857804C conformal-coat version is common because rolling-mill E-rooms, while not chemically corrosive, do see oil mist, scale dust, and coolant aerosol that conductive-dust over years can creep onto bare PCBs.Mining hoists and crusher/conveyor common-bus systems are another fit. A double-drum winder might have a 4-quadrant converter (two inverter modules back-to-back on one DC bus) in an R12i MultiDrive; the NGPS-12​ feeds both inverter modules’ NGDRs. In underground or pit-side installations, the cabinet sees wider temperature swings and dust — 857804C is the default there. Marine propulsion and thruster drives (ACS600 L-frame or ACS800 marine) also use R12i+ MultiDrive builds for the shaft-line converter; the NGPS-12​ here benefits from the conformal coat because of salt-air ingress even in supposedly “closed” E-rooms.Retrofit and spare strategy: because the NGPS-12​ has no firmware and the 857803 ↔ 857804C swap is drop-in (coating only), plants standardize on 857804C for all new spares regardless of what’s live — the slight price premium over 857803 is justified by the “store one SKU” simplicity and the fact that coated spares survive longer on the shelf in non-climate-controlled storerooms. A typical MultiDrive R12i+ cabinet population of 4–6 cabinets justifies 1–2 spare NGPS-12​ (857804C) on the shelf, plus the sibling NPOW and a few NGDRs, as the “power-section cold kit.” Because ACS600 is discontinued (SINAMICS DCM / S120 / ACS880 took over), the NGPS-12​ is an aftermarket-only SKU — new-old-stock and refurbished units circulate, and the conformal-coat variant is the one to prioritize for any plant still running MultiDrives into the 2030s.