Emotron's Variable Speed Drives Approved to UL Standards
Helsingborg, 11 September 2008
UL certification opens for increased sales to North America
Emotron AB, whose head office is in Helsingborg, Sweden, has achieved UL certification for the company's variable speed drives. This means that the company's entire portfolio of products designed to protect and control electric motors meets the UL Standard's high safety requirements. This opens the door to increased sales to the North American market.
The new UL certification applies to the company's variable speed drives Emotron FDU and Emotron VFX from 45 kW to 1,000 kW (the complete Emotron offer of variable speed drives covers the power range 0.18-1,500 kW). These models are now approved in accordance with UL 508C - Power Conversion Equipment.
The company's softstarters and shaft power monitors are already approved according to UL 508 - Industrial Control Equipment. This means that Emotron's entire portfolio of products designed to protect and control machines and processes powered by electric motors now meets the certification requirements demanded by many end users in the North American market.
High requirements for products and processes
Achieving UL certification is a time-consuming process, but Emotron sees the input of both time and money as an investment that will soon pay off through increased sales. Mogens Christensen, who is responsible for Product Certification at Emotron, also believes that the company will benefit from the process reviews that have been carried out, as well as from the possibilities for improvement that have been identified during this work.
"It's really a question of quality assurance, just as when working with our ISO 9001 system. The difference is that the UL certification focuses entirely on product safety. An independent third party has now confirmed that we have efficient working procedures for achieving this. All of our customers will benefit, even those who do not currently demand UL certification."
Inspections four times per year
The aim of the standard is to ensure personal safety in terms of electricity and the risk of fire in highly flammable material. This covers the whole product production process, from design to final assembly. An important part of this is training all relevant personnel.
Unannounced UL inspections will now take place four times a year at Emotron's production facilities, both in Helsingborg and in Bladel, The Netherlands. The inspections will check whether approved components are used, ask whether purchase specifications can be shown, demand full traceability of, for example, constituent plastic materials, and check whether all steps in the assembly process can be verified.
Increased competitiveness in all markets
Paul Hackett is president of Emotron Inc., the company's distributor in North America. He sees the news as very positive:
"We've just launched the new Emotron FDU/VFX 2.0 variable speed drives which offer the customer many unique advantages. Now that the larger models are UL approved this has further strengthened our offering. This means that we can better meet the needs of those customers who ask for certified products."
However, UL certified products are also in demand in Emotron's other markets. Calle Croona, a salesperson in Sweden, is responsible for the South Sweden region:
"Among our Swedish customers we have, for example, engineering companies which sell to the US. When their customers require UL approved machinery this also includes our products, which are used as components. We can now offer our entire portfolio for these projects."
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Emotron's variable speed drives are now certified to the UL 508 C Standard. This means the whole portfolio of products meets the high safety requirements demanded by many customers in the North American market.
"All of our customers will benefit from this," says Mogens Christensen, who is responsible for Product Certification at Emotron. "An independent third party has now confirmed that we have efficient working procedures which guarantee high product safety."
About Emotron
Emotron is a Swedish company which develops solutions for protecting and controlling processes driven by electric motors. The complete product portfolio, comprising shaft power monitors, softstarters and variable speed drives, is optimized for applications within flow control and material handling such as pumps, fans, cranes, crushers and lifts. The driving force is creating measurable benefits through energy savings, reduced maintenance and improved productivity.
In the last 30 years Emotron has grown to become a global group with 170 employees and a turnover of 40 million euros. Development and manufacturing resources are located in Sweden, the Netherlands and Germany. The company has its own sales organizations in Sweden, Benelux and Germany, offices in China and Latin America, and a worldwide network of distributors.
Additional information
Karin Bergkvist
E-mail: karin.bergkvist@emotron.se
Emotron AB
PO Box 222 25
SE-250 24 Helsingborg
Telephone: +46 42 16 99 97
Fax: + 46 42 16 99 49
Press information and high res. picture
Informedia Communications AB
Magnus Deutgen
Telephone: +46 8 556 973 40
Mobile: +46 70 733 46 02
E-mail: magnus.deutgen@informedia.se
www.emotron.com
