As Drives & Controls celebrates 40 years of chronicling industrial automation and motion control, it is fitting to reflect on another name that has become synonymous with progress in the drive industry: IMO Jaguar. Over the past four decades, the IMO’s Jaguar brand has earned a reputation for combining innovation, reliability and practical engineering. From some of the earliest compact inverter drives of the 1980s through to today’s high-performance intelligent drive platforms, Jaguar’s story mirrors the wider evolution of industrial motor control itself. Born at the Dawn of the Inverter Revolution When the first Jaguar drives appeared in 1986, variable speed drive technology was still emerging from specialist applications into the industrial mainstream. Large, expensive and often complex to commission, early inverters were far removed from the compact, feature-rich products engineers expect today. The Jaguar VL Series, launched in 1986, was among the first miniature three-phase analogue drives and established a design philosophy that would remain central to the brand: delivering advanced control in a practical, accessible package. Two years later came another milestone with the CUB VC150, recognised as one of the first lowcost analogue single-phase drives. This was followed in 1988 by the CD Mk1, the first digital threephase inverter in the Jaguar family to feature RS485 communications, bringing connectivity to a market that was increasingly looking for smarter automation solutions. These early innovations arrived at a time when manufacturers were beginning to recognise the productivity, process control and energysaving benefits that variable speed technology could deliver. Building a Reputation for Innovation The 1990s saw rapid technological development across the drives sector, and Jaguar was at the forefront of many of these advances. In 1993, IMO introduce D Inverter, one of the first DIN-rail mountable micro drives, simplifying panel design and installation. Just a year later, IMO launched the DXE series featuring sensorless vector control technology, allowing significantly improved motor performance without the need for encoder feedback. The arrival of the VX Torque Vector series in 1995 and subsequent Dynamic Torque Vector products further strengthened Jaguar’s position in demanding industrial applications. By combining higher starting torque, improved speed regulation and greater control accuracy, these drives helped expand inverter technology beyond pumps and fans into more sophisticated machine control environments. Industry recognition followed. By 2002, more than five million Jaguar inverters had been installed worldwide, a testament to both the scale of adoption and the confidence users placed in the brand. The Energy Efficiency Era While productivity and control remained important, the early 2000s brought a new focus: energy efficiency. n COVER STORY Four Decades of Drive Innovation IMO Jaguar:
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