Compressed Air Best Practices-August 2008

Focu Industry COMPRES ED AIR AUDITS Focus Industry COMPRESSED AIR AUDITS cus dust MPRESSED UDIT | 08/08 | What were the first few years like for Kaeser? We chose Fredericksburg, Virginia as our US headquarters due to the proximity of four major airports, three container ports and a major interstate for trucking. We started with a 10,000 square foot warehouse and four employees — including me. We had a serviceman, a secretary and a lone salesman — Roy Stuhlman. He is still with us today as our Vice President of Sales — as are many of the loyal distributors he recruited for us in those early years. At the time, rotary screws were just really getting started in the U.S. The horsepower sizes being sold were primarily 25–100 hp. People understood that rotary screw compressors were constant-duty machines with lower maintenance costs than the larger piston compressors. It was the beginning of a tremendous growth pattern for the rotary screw market across the world, but some education was still needed on how to most efficiently apply this technology. How did Kaeser position itself in the market during the 1980s? In Europe, there was a great deal of focus on energy efficiency. Kaeser Compressors established itself as a leader by developing the proprietary Sigma Profile air-end. It has a significant design advantage allowing it to produce 20% more air per horsepower than comparable designs. We carried that message through in establishing our business here. Even today, our research, development and design teams continue to optimize the design for even greater performance and the Sigma Profile remains the heart of every Kaeser compressor. How did you build Kaeser? We always had an outstanding product. You start with that and much like today, you focus on educating the customer and training field sales engineers. We had the right ideas on serving customers — and we had the time to do things right as well. With those fundamentals in place, we put in a lot of hard work. The first year in the U.S., I drove over 72,000 miles. We kept our expenses low and as a result, we made money in just our second year of operation. All of our employees were then and are now completely focused and committed to building Kaeser. The Kaeser Sigma Profile One of the first things we did was test several competitive units, and we challenged a number of companies to compare energy efficiency. Some manufacturers took up the challenge — those who did not know their own efficiency numbers. Some did not — generally those that did know. It created quite a stir! Kaeser has also expanded in Canada and Latin America — correct? Yes. Kaeser has grown steadily in both Mexico and Canada since the late 1980s and early 1990s. Both countries have their own subsidiaries with extensive warehousing, sales and service operations. During the early 1990s, Frank Mueller joined us and together we began establishing our presence in Latin America. Over the years, we built successful subsidiaries in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras. We have also built strong distributor organizations in most countries in the Southern Hemisphere. Kaeser Compressors Headquarters in Fredericksburg, Virginia www.airbestpractices.com 37 http://www.airbestpractices.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Compressed Air Best Practices-August 2008

Compressed Air Best Practices- August 2008 Contents From the Editor Utility-Air News The August Audit of the Month: A Vacuum System Audit Energized for Savings at Seattle City Light and Tacoma Power Know Your System CASE: Compressed Air Supply Efficiency Ecos Air: Managing Incentive Programs Kaeser Compressors: Loyalty, Energy and Growth Building Relationships at Cummins-Wagner McIntire is Moving Forward The 2008 A.I.C.D. Conference & Exhibition Tuthill Vacuum and Blower Systems Resources for Energy Engineers: Training Calendar & Product Picks Wall Street Watch Advertiser Index Job Market

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