Smart team + Smart phone = Smart product
What if industrial manufacturers could adjust the speed and energy consumption of their vacuum pumps from remote, depending on their current production flow? Meet two of the innovators behind the DZS VSD+ dry claw vacuum pump that can be controlled by a smartphone app. This market-leading technology brings cost cuttings and environmental benefits, and competitors are scrambling to catch up.
When Alexander Frerichs was studying commercial engineering at The Hague University, he took a part-time job as a postman in his hometown of Zwijndrecht, in the south-west Netherlands. One of the addresses he used to deliver to and pick up from was the Dutch base of Atlas Copco compressors.
The customer can simply commission the machine and set its three parameters via a Bluetooth connection. The designated VSD+ app allows the user to commission, control and monitor his vacuum pump.
“When I was looking for somewhere to do my graduate project, I saw the list of the companies in our town and I remembered Atlas Copco as one of the places on my round. I applied and the rest is history,” he says.
Fast forward ten years and Product Manager Alexander, along with R&D colleague Rachid Carauch, has been a key part of the team responsible for the delivery of Atlas Copco’s DZS VSD+ dry claw vacuum pump, the first on the market to feature an intelligent control system that can be run from a smartphone app.
