What do severe weather, industrial fire, hazard warnings, airport safety, and illuminating the Eiffel Tower have in common? They are all important ways that signaling technologies for machines and buildings made by Pfannenberg are being used to protect people, machines and the environment.
When Otto Pfannenberg established his electrical equipment company in Hamburg, Germany in 1954, he couldn’t have known how much his initial innovations would expand to help companies and people worldwide.
Today, 70 years after its founding, Pfannenberg is a third-generation family-run business with more than 220 patents and an industry leader in the electrotechnology industry. Its thermal management, signaling technologies, liquid cooling, services, support, and industry solutions help customers keep their machinery and operations safe and operating consistently.
Protecting People, Machines, and the Environment
Pfannenberg manufactures and sells a comprehensive range of thermal management, liquid cooling systems and audible/visual signaling technologies for security, fire, building, industrial process, disaster warning, and hazardous area applications. Clients in the automotive, renewable energy, food & beverage, infrastructure, manufacturing, and process industries rely on Pfannenberg’s products and solutions.
“Our many innovations have driven us to where we are today,” said Dr. Tobias Merl, CEO of Pfannenberg. “The Filterfan® we invented in 1958 is now in its fourth generation. It is recognized by customers around the world as a leading product to help manage the temperature in electrical enclosures. In 1962, we invented the first industrial flashing light that did not require a bulb change. Since then, we have expanded into a robust line of audible and visual signaling devices and solutions. We take pride in continuously innovating and finding ways to help our customers protect their people and equipment.”
A Global Presence
Pfannenberg remains headquartered in Hamburg, Germany, and has expanded to operate facilities in Germany, the United States, Italy, Singapore, China, and Brazil. The company also has a global sales and service network in 50 countries on five continents.
It established its U.S. headquarters in Lancaster, New York, in 1997 and has grown considerably during the past three years. Approximately 125 employees work there today engineering and producing Filterfans, cooling units, heaters, air/water heat exchangers, and chillers.
Signaling Technologies
AutomationDirect carries many Pfannenberg audible, audible-visual, visual, and audible-signaling devices that provide alarms and status notifications for industrial and commercial processes. The devices include beacons, LED signal columns, buzzers, horns, and visual-audible beacons in various sizes, mounting styles, lighting effects, and sound patterns.
Visual Signaling
Visual signaling devices include beacons and signal columns that use specialized lighting to draw people’s attention to important system conditions. Information can be immediately conveyed using a combination of different colors and effects. For example, a beacon can display yellow flashing for machine starting, green rotating for machine running, red continuous for machine stopped, and red flashing for machine faulted.
Pfannenberg PYRA series Xenon signal beacons feature exclusive Xenon flash technology with high flash energy and long service life. The PYRA series LED signal beacons are visual signaling devices for industrial, commercial, and construction applications. The PYRA series LED traffic lights are ideal for traffic management, as well as signaling hazardous conditions in a wide variety of applications. They offer selectable signaling modes and blink/flash frequencies.
Audible Signaling
Audible signal devices provide notification and alarms for industrial and commercial applications where visual indications are insufficient or impractical. These devices include buzzers and signal horns in various sizes and mounting styles with continuous, pulse, or selectable sound patterns.
Pfannenberg audible notification devices are available at AutomationDirect as through-panel or panel-mount buzzers/alarms, dome alarms in various diameters and mounting styles, and signal horns. Sound patterns may include continuous or pulse notifications. They are available in 22mm and 30mm round and rectangular panel mount options. Bracket, modular, wall, and surface-mount styles are also available. AutomationDirect also sells Pfannenberg electro-mechanical, electronic, and piezoelectric versions and hazardous location-rated buzzers.
Thermal Management and Liquid Cooling
Pfannenberg’s thermal management products and solutions for enclosures include thermostats & hygrostats, heaters, Filterfans, AC Cooling Units, Air/Water Heat Exchangers, and Air/Air Heat Exchangers. These products help maintain the life expectancy of electrical components, including PLCs, VFDs, industrial ethernet switches, and other critical electronics by managing the ideal enclosure temperature and humidity, preventing sudden failure.
These solutions are used in the automotive industry to cool spindle motors, machine tools, and laser and die cutting equipment. In the food & beverage industry, they cool pouch sealers, molds, inspection cameras, and baking process equipment. Finally, in the renewable energy industry, they cool solar inverters, hydrogen fuel cells, and storage batteries.
Consulting
In addition to the products it offers, Pfannenberg works with customers to survey their facilities and conduct thermal audits. These are deep evaluations to verify thermal loads and determine the best technology to cool the electrical enclosures. With these services, Pfannenberg can help customers reduce equipment downtime and costs and increase product life, productivity, and energy efficiency. Finally, Pfannenberg offers preventive maintenance, unit refurbishment services and spare parts and accessories.
Looking Toward the Next 70 Years
Pfannenberg continually looks at how to incorporate new technologies to serve its customers’ machinery protection throughout the world. The company’s commitment will always stay true to its roots of protecting people, machines, and the environment both now and in the future.