inventor Ragnar Jonsson, 76, approached the big breakthrough. He had received his drive to manage medium-sized electric motors and the world market was open. When he became seriously ill.
Drive is a big seller in the world. The small company NFO Drives have been a small part of the market, but now the inventor Ragnar Jonsson in his basement workshop at home in Ystad developed a technology that the company believes can provide a real boost.
Ragnar Jonsson has already received two patents. What distinguishes his art from competitors whose drive is controlled with pulse width modulation – a technique that causes electromagnetic interference – is that his is uninterrupted.
dilemma is that so far only been able frequency controlling electric motors up to 15 kW. After several years of dedicated work he will now have solved the problem. But in the car on the way down to Ystad reached New Technology of an unfortunate message: Ragnar Jonsson has suffered a serious illness and has been hospitalized.
Instead, we are looking up Ragnar’s son, Henry Hemark, who works in sales and OEM projects NFO Drives – a company that his father and lawyer Magnus Thorfinn established in 1996 to mass-produce and sell drives.
company is headquartered in the small urban Svängsta outside Karlshamn. Henrik Hemark is well versed in his father’s work and have followed the recent progress.
– The new patent called multiple switch and is based on a technique that parallel connecting several modules, one master and several slaves, working out of phase. This makes it possible to control the frequency of electric motors in higher power classes. The aim has been to reach the market for three-phase motors in power ratings up to 100 kW, but theoretically it has no patent restrictions, explains Henrik Hemark.
He says Ragnar Jonsson has come a long way in their work. Henrik Hemark says that breakthrough seems close now.
– He’s done with the electronics of the modules and has begun the development of the software. He had just started testing the prototypes when he became ill. .
While working on this article dies Ragnar Jonsson. Henrik Hemark may take over the reins earlier than he expected.
– It will be my task to convey his thoughts and ideas on. There is a great demand for interference-free frequency converters that can withstand greater impact, both among our existing customers and on the world market.
Ragnar Jonsson pursued since his retirement in their operations independently in her own business, but with an agreement with NFO Drives.
– My role in NFO Drives is to ensure that we make the best business possible. The success of the company is as much a success for Ragnar and the entire project. We are still a small player in the market and are in a family where we need to focus on making money and generate profitable business through our existing product lines, says Henrik Hemark.
– We have not had the resources to pursue long-term projects.
NFO Drives own development team has gone on the back burner in recent years, but due to a rights issue last fall, they have managed to free up resources. It welcomes Kenneth Svensson, corporate development manager.
– We have had knowledge of Ragnar’s theory of multiple switches for over ten years, but the process has been slowed by that we NFO Drives has not yet had the financial muscle required to produce a practical and customized product, he says.
But in 2013, three new development engineers employed. The company’s CEO, Johan Johansson, is well aware of the importance of a breakthrough.
– to our product today only handle up to 15 kW are of course limited market for us. We have found it difficult to hold our own against the big players. Moreover, some of our competitors tarnished our technology by claiming that it does not work, he says.
The NFO technology would not work is a reputation that dogged the company since the early 2000s when their first generation of the drive “NFO Sinus” caused a plurality claims. A new CEO, with a background as Quality Manager in one of Sweden’s largest electronics company, was added together with Kenneth Smith make a technical revision to produce a stable product.
– We went through a real crisis for a while, but we still managed to relatively quickly fix teething and replace the product with a new generation, says Kenneth Svensson.
What distinguishes NFO’s product is that it is the only drive that provides a pure sinusoidal output voltage while all competitors use the conventional PWM technique means chops the voltage. It provides electromagnetic interference on equipment in its environment.
Kenneth Svensson demonstrates the differences. He only starts a three-phase motor installed with NFO Sinus. On an oscilloscope visible sine wave. Then he hits on another motor, variable speed with PWM and instead shows the typical “square wave”. Direct, we also note that it produces a whistling noise from the engine.
– As you can see one of the benefits of our product, the engine is completely silent, says Kenneth.
Then he takes out an instrument that measures electromagnetic radiation and sweep it along both installations. The instrument beeps indicating full EMC interference. He turns off the engine with the PWM inverter and scans only the NFO-controlled installation. The instrument is silent.
NFO Drives Despite 2000s problems now managed to convince the market of the product’s value and recently signed a long term agreement with Delaval.
CEO Johan Johansson says that this is an important breakthrough – both for the company and the technology.
– We fight against the big established players, multinational companies such as ABB, Schneider, Siemens and others. Their drives are slightly cheaper and they can offer their customers complete solutions, says Johan Johansson and analyzes on.
– Maybe we’ve been a little too naive; believed that our product will sell itself just because it is such a great innovation, but so easy it is not. Engineers and technicians usually understand the benefits of our technology, but they are rarely responsible for the purchases.
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