Danfoss Compressors GmbH was a subsidiary of the Danfoss Group, a Danish manufacturer of valves and fluid-handling products, from 1956 to 2010. It produced hermetic compressors for household appliances and mobile cooling.
In 2010, the Danfoss Group sold Danfoss Compressors GmbH to the Munich-based industrial holding company Aurelius AG and established a new brand under the name Secop GmbH.
Founding
In 1933, Mads Clausen, an engineer specializing in air conditioning and refrigeration, established the Danish Cooling Automatic and Appliance Factory in his boyhood attic room in Elsmark, on the Danish island of Als. He started producing automatic valves for refrigeration plants, which previously had to be imported from the United States.
Clausen's initial budget was small, and his equipment consisted of a manual air pump and a zinc trough for testing the valves. The business would eventually become Danfoss A/S, the largest industrial group in Denmark. Its headquarters were also located in Elsmark, in the Nordborg community.
Between 1935 and 1938, the company introduced a long list of valve and thermostat products, including automatic spring valves, ball float valves, pressure-controlled valves, diaphragm valves, suction valves, constant-pressure valves, room thermostats and drying filters. A logo reading "Danfoss"—a portmanteau of the Danish words "Danmark" (Denmark) and "fosser" (to stream or sparkle)—was attached to all valves.
The company's valves, especially the thermostatic ones that Clausen developed, became its best-known products. Its energy-saving thermostats were not a major success until the energy crisis of the 1970s, when new legislation made the use of thermostat valves obligatory.
In 1946, the word from the logo became the official company name, and Danfoss opened an office in Copenhagen with 261 employees.
Compressor production
After the Second World War, the development of affordable individual cooling technologies threatened the success of Danfoss' main product, the expansion valve for large cooling plants. American companies had developed comparatively small hermetic compressors for use in home refrigerators. In Denmark, a few companies also set up production lines for hermetic compressors. Clausen decided to do the same.
During a trip to the United States and Canada in the fall of 1950, Clausen visited several manufacturers of hermetic compressors and gathered information, not only about technical specifications, but also about organisational details, compensation and output optimisation. On January 1, 1952, he entered a licensing agreement with Tecumseh Products. The agreement allowed Danfoss to manufacture hermetic compressors and sell them in any country except for the US, Canada, Great Britain and Ireland. The production in Nordborg started in 1951.
The first compressor, P 101, was nicknamed "Pancake" because of its flat appearance. It influenced the development of refrigerators as household appliances in Europe. In 1952, Danfoss sold 5,000 Pancake compressors, which accounted for 10% of the company's production. Over the years, the compressor business made up 25 to 35% of the Danfoss Group's sales.
History
1956: Danfoss relocates its compressor production to Flensburg, in northern Germany, and the limited company Danfoss Compressors GmbH is established.
1958: Production of hermetic compressors begins. Danfoss distributes its first PW compressors, which begin to replace the Pancake type. Productivity increases from 1,000 compressors per week at the beginning of the year to 1,750 per week at the end.
1959: The Danfoss plant begins operating on two shifts, producing 8,000 units per week. Its biggest customers are Bauknecht, Siemens and Bosch, manufacturers of household refrigerators.
1960: The company begins using synthetic materials and oils for greater stability in low as well as high temperatures.
1961: Danfoss becomes an incorporated company. Mads Clausen assumes the chairmanship of the board.
1966: Clausen dies on August 27. His wife, Bitten, takes over the chairmanship, and Andreas Jepsen becomes managing director.
1968: The number of Danfoss employees in Flensburg reaches 1,372.
1970: The company's second plant—whose foundation stone was laid in the mid-1960s, when demand for household compressors rose sharply—is completed. The number of employees surpasses 2,000. A new compressor line and the PTC starter for light commercial appliances are introduced.