Denmark based Danfoss, a leading player in electronic components and solutions bagged a huge order from Cipla's world class drug manufacturing plant at Goa. The drug major chose Danfoss' Variable Frequency Drives (VFD) model VLT 6000 HVAC to control around 600 Air Handling Units and 40 pumps to maintain a clean room manufacturing environment.

Danfoss is also a recognized player in VFD for the pharmaceutical sector. Its offerings are VFD for the HVAC, Refrigeration and Process applications.

However, the latest offering of the company is the VLT HVAC Drive which is an innovative product for pharmaceutical HVAC applications and a benchmark in the industry. "Our expertise brings in better production efficiency, incremental savings in energy and power consumption," P Ravichandran, regional vice president - motion controls, Asia Pacific Region, Danfoss Industries told Pharmabiz in an email interview.

Global pharma customers like Novartis, Sanofi Aventis, Pfizer and AstraZeneca have installed Danfoss drives for HVAC, Refrigeration and Process applications.

In India, Cipla's is the largest installation for Danfoss. "Cipla opted for Dafoss because of the flexibility in installation, commissioning and operation. Key attractions of the VFD are its closed loop operation, interlock of the VFD with a smoke detector, supply to the fire damper motor routed through the VFD and the energy meter on the VFD providing the flexibility to track the individual power consumption of the AHUs and Pumps, "stated BB Shah and PG Patil in a case study on the product efficiency.

According to the records of March 2007, Cipla has around 1,000 numbers of Danfoss VLT drives installed for fan and pump applications at their plants in Goa, Daman, Patalganga, Kurkumbh, Satara and Baddi.

Other customers in the country for Danfoss include Bharat Biotech, Serum Institute, Claris Life Sciences, Flamingo Pharma, Cadila Health Care, Macleods Pharma, JB Pharma, USV, National Institute of Virology, Ranbaxy, Torrent, Sandoz, Sun Pharma, Fresnius Kabi, Indoco, Themis, Unichem, Glaxo Smithkline, Wockhardt, Chiron Berhing, Marck Biosciences, Intas, Zydus Cadila, Orchid Chemicals and Reliance Biosciences.

The investment required by an HVAC plant with 40-50 AHUs is around Rs. 25-35 lakh. However, when the VFDs are properly integrated to the HVAC & BMS system of the plant, the investment cost of the VFDs gets reduced by approximately 20-25%. This is because, Danfoss VFDs, has the inbuilt product customization for HVAC and pharma applications. For a pharmaceutical plant, which operates 16 hours a day, this kind of investment is typically paid back within a year by the savings accrued due to the usage of the VFDs, informed Ravichandran.

India is increasingly becoming the biggest market for Danfoss in the Asia Pacific region, along with China, Russia and Latin America. It also undertakes marketing activities under the aegis of industry bodies like CII, ISHRAE and FICCI to share experiences in energy conservation using VFDs. The company works closely with Blue Star Limited Services Group to offers energy solutions.