Dedication is the key Danfoss

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.

Danfoss 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 (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.

Owing to their special features, including their EHEDG (European Hygienic Engineering & Design Group) certified hygienic design and coating, they are particularly suited for the food and beverage sector. In fact, Danfoss is the only drives manufacturer to offer products with this certification.

The VLT®Flex Concept is a system using modern motor technology combined with the most advanced inverter drives and developed as a unified system. It comprises the highly efficient VLT® OneGearDrive combined with a VLT® Decentral FCD 302 Drive or a VLT® AutomationDrive FC 302 frequency converter. This results in higher efficiency, fewer variants, lower training and maintenance costs, flexibility and higher reliability, meaning a reduction in production and manufacturing costs.

Danfoss offers the choice between VLT® drives for centralised location in a control room, cabinets or wall-mounted and VLT® decentralised drives for mounting close to or even onto the drive motor. This offers maximum flexibility in plant design and maintenance, allowing the user to reduce wire connections across the plant and the costs attached to them. Both the VLT® OneGearDrive geared motor unit and the VLT® Decentral Drive FCD 302 meet the most stringent wash-down and hygienespecific conditions, making them the ideal combination for food and beverage plants. Furthermore the high level of energy efficiency of these products combined (up to 90 per cent) reduces the total cost of ownership by up to 25 per cent in comparison with conventional systems. Indeed, one year’s energy savings from Danfoss’s annual of VLT® drives will save energy equivalent to the production of a major power plant.

Dedicated service provider

One of the key strengths of Danfoss Srl, as with the entire Danfoss Drives division, is the high level of after-sales service it can offer its clients. In fact, as all the company’s products have been developed according to clients’ needs and suggestions, its qualified technical staff have acquired a vast experience in maintenance and applications, allowing them to offer support in the installation and running of the motor control product range. In addition, Danfoss also organises technical training courses on the use and activation of its VLT® frequency converters, which can take place either at the main site in Turin or at the client’s own premises.

Looking ahead, Danfoss Srl is planning to grow organically, as the group division to which it belongs is undergoing continuous evolution and growth. Any possible acquisition would be decided at global rather than at national level. In particular, the company is hoping to increase its market share in the large building air-conditioning sector (such as for hospitals), while at the same time enlarging its presence in all the other sectors to which it’s already supplying its products. Geographically, Danfoss Srl is not going to expand any further as other geographical markets are already within the scope of other companies within the group.

nwww.danfoss.it/VLT-Drives | vlt-drives@danfoss.it