Largest expansion programmes
Now, despite the global financial crisis, Danfoss Drives is forging ahead with one of the largest expansion programmes in its history. Rocketing energy prices and concerns over global warming have made industry and commerce sit up and finally take notice of inverter drives’ potential for significant energy savings and as a first-class opportunity for year-on-year savings on the bottom line of their profit and loss return.
Substantial rise in sales
This has been responsible for a substantial rise in sales of Danfoss’ high efficiency HVAC drives range for energy saving fan, pump and compressor applications. The popularity of these drives has resulted in Danfoss winning a significant increase in market share, right across the global market. Their well-timed entry into the large drives market, with power ratings up to 1200 kW, has been highly successful and the company has greatly exceeded its original market share targets for what is, for Danfoss, a new market. At the other end of the ratings range, the new Micro Drive range, up to 7.5kW, has also experienced unprecedented volume sales.
In response to this quantum leap in sales volume right across the ratings spectrum, Danfoss Drives is embarking on the largest expansion plan in the company’s history. A new 11,000 m2 plant is to be built alongside the existing factory at Graasten.
Projects in Chine and USA
In addition, Danfoss Drives build a new 21.000 m2 plant in in China, and plans to extend the high power drives factory plant at Rockford in the US by 12.000 m2, doubling its capacity. The completion of this total additional 44,000 m2 of manufacturing space will give Danfoss the capacity to expand from its current volume of 1,400,000 units per year to over 2,000,000 inverters per year and enable Danfoss to continue timely delivery of its full range of products, in over 1,600,000 variants, straight off the production line.
Products and technologies that buck the trend
According to Sven Ruder, President, Motion Controls Division ‘There are always products and technologies that buck the trend. At a time when many companies are feeling the pinch, inverter technology offers them an opportunity to make substantial and continuing financial savings in addition to a reduction in the company’s carbon footprint, which, in turn, for many companies, has additional value within carbon trading arrangements.
Demand for inverter drives is going to escalate
As energy costs have risen and inverter costs have fallen, these benefits have extended right across the drives rating spectrum and are not restricted to the larger powers. Today, if you operate fans and pumps in your factories and buildings, it’s pretty near impossible not to get a fast return on the modest investment in fitting inverter speed control to them. Demand for inverter drives is going to escalate over the next decade and this ambitious expansion programme will position Danfoss Drives to serve that demand and make a positive contribution to the required reduction in greenhouse gases.’
