What Is An AC or DC Drive?

You seem to be giving conflicting information here...on one hand you say that it is difficult to alter DC voltage to higher or lower levels, then you say it can be done with a very compact drive....

..."AC voltages can be readily transformed to higher or lower voltage levels, while it is difficult to do that with DC voltages."...

...". It takes the low current and then converts it into a high current which is appropriate for the motor."...

..."DC drives have favorable characteristics that prove to be appropriate for many applications. The characteristics of a DC drive include speed changes that are made by increasing or decreasing the amount of DC voltage fed to the motor from the drive; low cost for medium and high-HP applications; wide speed range; and good speed regulation. DC drives can also be very compact in size."...

This is not clear at all....so I'm including these video primers....

The term "Drive" seems to be overused. It seems to me that you really mean "(motor) controller". There are controllers for AC, DC, stepper, Universal, Variable voltage, variable frequency, variable current, etc. When I hear "DC drive", i'm thinking of the motor and not the controller (same for AC). Using this term this way, is like me using "Hey You" as a nick-name.

Reminds me of when somebody shouted, "Hey you in the blue shirt!" on a Navy base. Except, I can't tell if you're trying to be funny or not.

The term"Drive" is used a lot because that is what they are called industry wide. Their "function" is speed control of motor(s) either AC or DC. Each type has it's particular purposes,so yes,they are motor speed controllers,but the term "Drive" has much more far reaching implications,such as synchronization of multiple motors. "Driver" or "Drive" has many meanings,such as a taxi driver,a golf club,a psychological motivation,a hammer,a hard charging boss,cowboys herding cattle,etc,but when used in the electrical trade,it is normally used to indicate a multiple motor control "System". In electronics,it is used to designate the final output stage,or an intermediate output to another stage. People well versed in the electrical trade know this meaning as it applies to their trade,same with golf,cowboys,managers,psychologists,etc.

From my experience is Aust the term Drive is used for the device which changes the state of the supply to the motor which is either AC or DC.

The motors are generally named for the mechanical device they drive in the real world like conveyor #1 motor, Swing motor, Synchronous motor #1.

I did commissioning back in the mid 70s on an Irrigation pump station where the slip frequency voltage was recovered from the motor. This was then rectified and chopped back into AC and fed back into the supply. The purpose was to boost the overall efficiency of the motors on the pumps to greater than 97%.

A controller takes in the various inputs for protection, stop/start and feedback signals and controls the drive that supplies power to the field device. The drive can be a Motor Control Center, Variable Frequency Drive, Ward Leonard DC drive system.

Also DC voltage is used for very high voltage high power transmission and is converted back to AC by Thyristors so it can be transformed for final distribution.

It looks to me like this article was not written by somebody with an electrical engineering background. This is sad for an IEEE organization.

I believe this is just an advertiser...