NORD Drivesystems has pushed its NORDAC PRO SK 500P variable frequency drive family into heavier territory. On July 17, 2026, the company added four new frame sizes to the range, bringing the total to 10 and extending the performance envelope up to 200.0 hp.
What makes this expansion interesting isn’t just the raw ceiling. The SK 500P now spans 0.33 – 200.0 hp in a single, coherent family, which means an OEM can standardize on one control philosophy from a fractional-horsepower conveyor motor all the way up to serious industrial muscle — without swapping platforms or relearning the parameter set.
Motor compatibility is deliberately broad. The drives run three-phase asynchronous motors, but they also handle IE5+ permanent magnet synchronous motors, delivering high-precision control with strong overload capability for constant-torque applications. If you’re chasing efficiency numbers, that IE5+ pairing is where the SK 500P earns its keep.
Under the hood, this is far more than a speed knob. The SK 500P ships with full PLC functionality, so it can take on control tasks that would otherwise need a separate controller. A few of the highlights:
- Four parameter sets switchable directly online, so a single drive can adapt to changing operating modes on the fly
- POSICON positioning control for applications that need to hit exact positions, not just spin
- Integrated brake chopper, sparing you an external component
- Energy-saving function to trim consumption during partial-load operation
- CANopen interface for straightforward integration into existing automation buses
Connectivity leans modern. The SK 500P offers multi-protocol Ethernet interfaces, along with integrated functional safety and wireless diagnostics — the last of which is the kind of feature maintenance teams quietly love, since it lets them read a drive’s health without popping a cabinet or wiring in a laptop.
NORD frames the whole family as adaptable to individual application requirements across industries, and the spec sheet backs that up. Between the wide power span, dual motor support and the on-board PLC, the SK 500P is pitched less as a fixed-function box and more as a configurable building block.
For engineers standardizing a machine portfolio, that consistency is the real selling point. One drive family, one toolset, one diagnostics workflow — from the smallest actuator to a 200 hp workhorse.
