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Emerson buys Saftronics to join Control Techniques

01 November, 2005

Emerson Electric has acquired the US drives-maker Saftronics for an undisclosed sum. The Florida-based company will become part of Emerson Industrial Automation and will strengthen the drives and drive systems portfolio of Emerson`s Control Techniques division. The acquisition could double the size of CT`s North American business.

Saftronics, which has assembly operations in the US and Canada, was previously privately owned. It has been designing and manufacturing solid-state motor controls for more than 30 years. Its current portfolio includes: AC variable speed drives from 125W-4MW; DC drives from 125W-4MW; soft-starts from 3.75kW-4MW; and custom-engineered systems based on these technologies. It is particularly strong in the water, HVAC and mining markets.

A recent introduction is an 18-pulse variable frequency drive designed to minimise harmonic distortion and to exceed the requirements of IEEE 519.

"We are very excited by the addition of Saftronics` capabilities to our North American operations," says Jean-Paul Montupet, who heads Emerson`s Industrial Automation business. "This strengthens our offering in some key growth areas of the North American drives market, including energy saving and mining."

For the medium term, at least, Saftronics will continue to operate under its own name. Its present and future products will be developed using technologies from Control Techniques` Unidrive SP AC drives family.