Vacon is a manufacturer of variable-speed AC drives, or frequency converters. AC drives can be used to control of the rotation speed of electric motors or to help generate power from renewable sources. Vacon has R&D and production units in Finland, the United States, China and Italy, and sales offices in 27 countries. In 2009, Vacon had revenues of EUR 272 million and globally employed more than 1,200 people. Vacon's shares (VAC1V) are listed and publicly traded on the Helsinki Stock Exchange.

• The history of Vacon dates back to 1993 when a group of 13 key employees at the Vaasa Factories of ABB Industry Oy founded Vaasa Control Oy. These 13 founding members started Vacon's journey towards the goal of becoming a leading global supplier of AC drives. Since then, some 1200 more people have joined the team, serving a network of customers and partners all over the world. In 2008 Vacon celebrated its 15-year history.
• Vacon’s shares are listed on the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki Oy. On 31 December 2009, Vacon had 5,114 shareholders, of which 71.1% were institutions or private investors operating in Finland and 28.9% were foreign owners.
• Vacon’s AC drives are utilized extensively in almost all sectors of industry and society around the world. Typical customer business sectors include machine building, mining, renewable energy generation, construction engineering, marine & offshore industry and water treatment.
• AC drives are used for example in pumps, fans, cranes, lifts, paper machines, wind power plants and compressors. Some of Vacon’s biggest customers are Honeywell, Eaton, Konecranes, Schindler, The Switch Engineering, Rockwell Automation and Converteam.
• Using AC drives can give considerable energy savings and they are utilized in renewable energy generation. Saving energy and the generation of renewable energy both help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. The amount of energy used in the manufacture of AC drives is considerably less than the potential energy savings in various applications.
• In terms of its revenues, Vacon is the largest company in the world that has focused solely on the AC drives business.

In 2010 it was revealed that the Stuxnet

Stuxnet

Stuxnet is a computer worm discovered in June 2010. It initially spreads via Microsoft Windows, and targets Siemens industrial software and equipment...

 worm targeted SCADA

SCADA

SCADA generally refers to industrial control systems : computer systems that monitor and control industrial, infrastructure, or facility-based processes, as described below:...

systems which used AC motor controls from Vacon.

Facts at a glance

• Revenues in 2009: EUR 272 million
• Production and R&D on three continents
• Sales companies and representatives in 27 countries
• Worldwide distributor network
• Investment in R&D ~ 7%
• Personnel ~ 1,200
• Since December 2000, Vacon’s share is quoted on the main list of the NASDAQ OMX Helsinki
• Headquartered in Vaasa, Finland

External links

• http://www.vacon.com
• http://www.vacon.fi (Finnish)
• Vacon is a member of Cleantech Finland