DEDICATION IS THE KEY Turin-based Danfoss Srl distributes electronic components to various industry sectors, such as food and beverage, industrial automation, HVAC and chemicals. Barbara Rossi finds out more about the company’s activities from Mr Aldo Ornaghi, country manager for the drives division.
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anfoss Srl is part of the large multinational Danfoss group, headquartered in Denmark. The Danfoss group is subdivided in four divisions: Danfoss drives, Danfoss Heating, Danfoss refrigeration & air conditioning and Danfoss Industrial Automation. The Danfoss Drives division employs about 20,000 people worldwide. As with all the other group companies, it holds ISO 9001 and 14001 certifications and carries out the entire production process, from R&D to design and manufacturing, in-house. Danfoss Srl is the Italian distributor for the Drives division products. Its products include VLT® frequency converters, soft starters, decentralised solutions and power options. Its core products, however, are the VLT® frequency converters, which are mainly produced at the group’s plant in Graasten, Denmark, and also at the in the USA (Loves Park, Illinois) and China
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(Haiyan). VLT® frequency converters are mass-produced variable speed drives for AC motors, which the group first introduced in 1968. Since that year the key word for Danfoss has been, according to Mr Ornaghi, ‘dedication’. In fact, 2000 employees in over 100 countries are dedicated to the development and supply of assistance services and products, specifically for frequency converters and soft starters. Soft starters are also employed in controlling motors and Danfoss manufactures these at different sites around the world. The Danfoss frequency converter technology, which has been employed in piloting motors for different applications since the 1960s, offers an increase in the energy efficiency achieved by the whole production plant, whose motors are controlled by these devices. VLT® frequency converters control the entire AC motor performance, including speed,
torque, acceleration, synchronisation and positioning. VLT® frequency converters are used in various sectors, including food and beverage, industrial automation, water and waste water treatment, refrigeration, HVAC, chemicals and textiles. Currently Danfoss Srl’s main outlet is the food and beverage sector and its main geographical focus is Italy, which is why it has sales offices at other Italian locations including Rome, Bologna and Vimercate.
The VLT® Flex Concept Danfoss has recently introduced a new philosophy: the VLT®Flex Concept, a drive which gives to the user the possibility to decide if centralise or decentralise its plant, mounting drives close or even onto the drive motor, or into a cabinet. This system has already been launched on the market, having been presented at a trade fair SPS/ IPC/Drives Italia, in Parma in May 2011.
