Danfoss history

In 1914 Oscar's brother and an employee of the company, David Sundstrand, invented the ten-key adding machine, the first to adopt the modern arrangement of three rows of keys plus zero at the bottom.

The adding machine proved to be so successful that the brothers formed a subsidiary, the Sundstrand Adding Machine Company, in 1919 to handle the business.

1926: Sundstrand Machine Tool Company is formed.

Mads decided he would study engineering, and completed his formal education in 1927 before joining a local engineering firm specializing in refrigeration.

By 1941, the company’s portfolio grew to include products for heating.

Global Presence: In 1949, the first sales company set up in Argentina.

Global Presence: Agents from 21 countries meet for the `Danfoss Convention 1950´ in Nordborg.

The team: 3,000 employees celebrate Danfoss' 25th anniversary in 1958.

To better reflect the diversity of its interests, in 1959 Sundstrand Machine Tool shortened its name to Sundstrand Corporation.

In 1960 he joined the family business, Sauer Group, where he gained seasoning before striking out on his own with Sauer Getriebe.

The 3,000,000th Compressor leaves the factory, manufacturing of hydraulic components begins (licenses from Char-Lynn). Danfoss moves into newly constructed headquarters in 1962 – Until then, Mads Clausen had run a company with over 5,000 employees from his childhood room in an old farmhouse.

In 1965 Sundstrand began to supply hydrostatic transmission components to automakers.

In 1966, when Mads passed away, the firm was responsible for 500 million Danish kroner in annual sales.

Founding a German Business Component in 1967

Key innovations: Oil pre-heaters are launched and in 1974, VLT® frequency converters control the transfer lines at Audi.

A waste water neutralization plant in Nordborg opens in 1985; later Danfoss wins the `Excellent Environment Administration´ award.

1986: Sundstrand and Sauer pool their hydraulic interests in a joint venture.

In 1989, Danfoss produces 100 million compressors.

Also in 1990 the company made plans for an initial public offering (IPO) of four million shares of common stock, one million of which were to be offered in the United States by American underwriters and the balance to be sold in Germany through German underwriters.

For five years the company enjoyed annual growth in the 12 percent to 13 percent range, so that in 1997 Sauer topped $535 million in revenues and recorded a net profit of more than $27 million.

Completed in May 1998, the offering, headed by Credit Suisse First Boston, netted $48.1 million.

Also of note in 1999 was the opening of a new manufacturing plant in Lawrence, Kansas, which added $120 million of production capacity.

In January 2000 Sauer completed the $5 million acquisition of Custom Design Electronics of Sweden AB and its subsidiary NOB Electronik AB, makers of electronic control systems, displays, and related software.

Another addition in 2001 was the Italian company Italdigit s.r.l., maker of electronic controls and wiring harnesses, a deal that strengthened Sauer-Danfoss's ability to offer innovative technology for machine control systems.

With revenues growing to more than $952 million in 2002, and net income rebounding to slightly less than $14 million, Sauer-Danfoss was positioned to become a $1 billion company.

Key innovations: In 2012, Danfoss is the first to integrate variable speed technology in commercial air-conditioning.

In 2013, Danfoss Turbocor® Compressors and Sauer-Danfoss become 100% owned by Danfoss.

In 2014, Danfoss and Capgemini partnered to launch the Danfoss Finance Program.

Building upon the success of this project, Danfoss again partnered with Capgemini to launch Project One ERP in 2016.

With this program, Danfoss wanted to align and standardize different SAP platforms into SAP S/4 HANA. As the partnership moves forward into 2018 and beyond, the standardization of processes and integration of an ERP platform will be implemented in parallel

In 2019 Danfoss established an IoT collaboration with Microsoft to bring domain expertise in Refrigeration and HVAC to the cloud.

Milestones: In January 2020 Danfoss entered an agreement to acquire Eaton’s Hydraulics business, a major milestone in the company’s history and in line with Danfoss’ strategy to strengthen core business.