Danfoss has been named the Silver Winner for the 2011 Global Awards for Excellence in Business Process Management (BPM) and Workflow. This award is given to industrial organizations in recognition of improvements in business processes. The program is managed by Future Strategies Inc. and sponsored by BPM.com, Object Management Group and Workflow Management Coalition.

_{Members of the Danfoss' team accept the award.}

This is from the release:

"Danfoss Power Electronics received the award in the competitive North American region. The judges recognized the company’s skilled management of interdisciplinary competencies with basic technology applications in order to springboard a process management program. As a result of the BPM project the company significantly reduced workload in several areas; for one, the master data on shipping information, price points, discounts and other variables is now far more accurate and no longer needs to be manually checked and entered, resulting in a 25 – 35% improvement in productivity for customer service personnel. The company also introduced a new, team-oriented culture aligned with the organization’s value stream and developed a competency toolbox for process management.

This project was a result of an industrial research program between the two entities, aimed at solving business problems while advancing theoretical knowledge in the BPM area. Danfoss was nominated for the award by its research partner, Center for Industrial Production, Aalborg University, Denmark."

How to operate a Danfoss FC102 VFD using the keypad

Danfoss VLT Drives has introduced a new line of Vertical Bypass Panel Assemblies for Danfoss VLT® HVAC Drives in HVAC applications, when and where customers prefer bypass controls and maximum flexibility to meet strict installation constraints.

“Vertical Bypass Panel Assemblies are constructed of the same high quality components and design to deliver the same high performance as our traditional panels, but with a sleek vertical layout and smaller footprint that requires half the horizontal width of traditional panels,” says Steve Gmeinder, Product Manager.

Vertical Bypass Panel Assemblies feature a UL Type 1 / NEMA 1 design, and are UL/CUL 508 listed and seismically certified. Inherent phase loss / imbalance and brown-out protection prevents product damage and downtime in adverse power quality installations. They are available in non-bypass or 3 contactor bypass configurations, and provide 24 VDC control power for all but the largest sizes.

“The engine driving the Danfoss panel dependability is a 24 VDC switch mode power supply that greatly improves performance and dependability beyond traditional CPT power designs. The panel power supply on P2, P3 and P4 frame sizes provides steady and dependable control power, even when the input voltage drops up to 30 percent, virtually eliminating contactor malfunction due to brown-out conditions or phase loss.  On P5 frame sizes, a voltage sensing relay provides similar protection,” explains Gmeinder.

Danfoss drives provide superior performance due to the robust DC link reactor that is standard in every VLT HVAC Drive. This device offers comparable harmonic performance to AC input reactors without detrimental input voltage reductions, and without the extra heat that would typically be removed by additional fans or other devices.

Options available with Vertical Bypass Panel Assemblies include 208V – 240V through 60 HP, and 460V and 600V through 125HP.  Additional options to satisfy specific application needs include:

• Fused disconnect or circuit breaker disconnect
• Electronic or electromechanical bypass
• 100,000 Amps Short Circuit Current Rating (100KA SCCR)
• Embedded fieldbus communication protocols
• Various fieldbus and I/O option cards

Timing the announcement with the AHR show this week in Chicago, Danfoss has introduced the VLT® HVAC Basic Drive - a small, full-featured variable speed drive that promises reliable, low-cost HVAC performance for basic fan and pump operations.

“In some fan and pump operations advanced drive features are unnecessary and, because they are superfluous, simply add to overall costs.  The VLT HVAC Basic Drive is an ideal solution that strikes the optimum balance between price and variable speed drive performance in these straightforward HVAC installations,” says Ed Smith, a company representative.

VLT HVAC Basic Drives minimize wear on HVAC equipment and maximize system up-time, while reducing HVAC system operating costs up to 15%. 

The company says that the VLT HVAC Basic Drive is the most compact drive in its class and with its specifications to reduce panel space requirements. Numerous built-in features reduce, and in some applications may even eliminate, the need for additional external equipment such as gateways, PI controllers and PLCs.  An Automatic Energy Optimizer function reduces energy consumption by up to 15%, while “sleep mode” functionality can help further reduce operating costs and extend drive life.  Bypass frequencies minimize operating noise, vibration and resonance issues.

VLT HVAC Basic Drives also feature a “start up wizard” that makes drive set-up fast and simple, and easy tool access further aids fast and effective commissioning and operation.  A robust single-piece enclosure provides reliable, maintenance-free operation in ambient temperatures up to 50 degrees C, with no external cooling required.  A unique cooling concept provides problem-free performance, even in harsh environments, without forced air flowing over the electronics.

Danfoss is kicking off their third annual "EnVisioneer of the Year" award competition and invites entries for consideration.

The competition recognizes U.S. end use customers, building owners and original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) that have introduced a new product, opened a new facility or invested in a building or system upgrade in the past 18 months using Danfoss products or solutions to realize significant energy and/or environmental savings.

A distinguished panel of judges representing different disciplines in the heating, ventilation, air-conditioning and refrigeration (HVACR) industry will review all applications and select the winner.

As part of their recognition, a donation will be made to Rebuilding Together in honor of the selected 2012 EnVisioneer of the Year. Rebuilding Together is the nation’s leading nonprofit working to preserve affordable home-ownership and revitalize communities. Their network of more than 200 affiliates provides extensive renovations and modifications to the homes of low-income Americans at no cost to the homeowners, making the homes safer, more accessible and more energy efficient.

The award will be presented in Chicago as part of AHR EXPO 2012.

Last year’s winner, MultiStack LLC, installed two MultiStack chillers at Valley High School, Las Vegas, Nevada.

By switching to the magnetic levitation-powered chillers and a central plant control system, the 45-year-old school reduced its energy consumption by 70 percent, from 1.5 kW/ton to .443 kW/ton.

For more information about the EnVisioneer of the Year competition and to submit an entry, please visit http://envisioneering.danfoss.com/About/EnVisioneering+Award.htm, or contact Lisa Tryson, director, corporate communications and public relations, at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or 410-513-1142.

Interested participants may enter the competition by submitting an application no later than January 12, 2012.

In late May, Paranet approached Danfoss to participate in their annual Factory Crawl.

With over 150 manufacturing companies to choose from, Danfoss’ Milwaukee facility was hand-selected for the sold-out tour for four reasons:

1. Danfoss practices Lean principles each and every day.
2. Danfoss has an excellent visual management system that is owned by the employees.
3. Danfoss employees are well educated in manufacturing.
4. Over the years, Paranet has observed other things about Danfoss in Milwaukee:
a. The employees are engaged and happy.
b. The leadership is not ostentatious or domineering but rather strong and supportive allowing employees to be all they can be.
c. The senior leadership is thoughtful and willing to learn new ways to be the best leaders possible.

The six-station tour examined:

• Material & Information Flow Analysis (MIFA), Global Skill Matrix, Components of shop floor merit increases and bonus system (tied to continuous improvement results)
• Performance Management Boards and Root Cause Problem Solving (RCPS) process
• Wire Harnesses - built in quality checks, setup reduction which allowed us to build to actual demand, self-managed work cell, trigger to build
• Strategy Deployment - How we deploy our Must Win Battles & Plant KPI improvements throughout our organization (using Tactical Implementation Plan - TIP) down to each individual's performance agreement.
• Flow Line concept
• Safety, Environmental and Maintenance management as well as results

After the tour, Linda Kiedrowski of Paranet stated, “Al Drifka and his team raised the bar on conducting the factory tour. Tour participants got a solid view of this fine company and were very impressed with the problem-solving techniques that employees use to get to the root cause of problems to allow sustaining improvement.

Other companies featured in the crawl were Snap-On Tools and Broan-NuTone LLC.

Earlier in the week, Danfoss hosted Congressman Don Manzullo (R-IL) for a groundbreaking ceremony for the company’s new logistics facility in Loves Park, IL. Fueled by strong growth of Danfoss’ high-powered, energy-efficient drives, the company will relocate its receiving, shipping and warehousing operations into this new facility, which will create additional manufacturing capacity at the current location.

During his visit, Manzullo, who founded and serves as co-chairman of the House Manufacturing Caucus, also participated in a discussion with top Danfoss managers about how Danfoss VLT variable frequency drives (VFDs) are helping the environment by reducing energy consumption.

Clean energy technologies, like those manufactured by Danfoss VLT Drives, help to create sustainable jobs. The speakers during the groundbreaking ceremony expressed a similar idea, reinforcing the importance of the impact a company like Danfoss has on the local economy.

In application, VFDs can save energy and reduce the impact on the environment by reducing the dependence on fossil fuels and the need to build power plants. VFDs can typically save 15 to 40 percent of energy required to operate a motor, depending on the installation; yet, 70 to 80 percent of new industrial electric motors globally do not have variable speed drives.

Danfoss reports that is has 3.5 million Danfoss VLT variable speed drives installed worldwide, accounting for a reduction in carbon dioxide emissions of 33 million tons per year.

This is the second expansion at the Danfoss plant in two years, as the current facility was doubled in size (from 125,000 to 250,000 sq. ft.) in 2009.

Danfoss is introducing the VLT FlexConcept, a unified drive specifically engineered to satisfy the efficiency, flexibility and reliability demands of the food and beverage, and packaging industries.

The system consists of a highly efficient helical bevel gear driven by a compact permanent magnet motor, and combined with an efficient inverter.

Danfoss has been re-approved by the International Association for Continuing Education and Training (IACET) as an Authorized Provider of Continuing Education Units (CEUs) for five years. Danfoss offers education programs to more than 1000 participants each year in all aspects of selecting, installation, commissioning and servicing their drive products.

By Steffan Hansen, Ph.D., Danfoss Drives.

In variable frequency drive applications, harmonic current distortion and voltage distortion are of interest but have different effects on the power system. It is therefore important to distinguish between them when discussing the effects of ”harmonics.”

General information on “harmonics”
The term ”harmonics” has often been used in connection with variable frequency drives. But what are harmonics, anyway? Basically, any periodic signal can be represented as a sum of sine-functions with frequencies equal to an integer multiple of the fundamental frequency.