The Danfoss Museum will soon re-open in Mads Clausen’s childhood home, next to Danfoss headquarters in Nordborg. The role of the museum, which is run by the Bitten & Mads Clausen Foundation, is to help secure a unique part of Denmark's industrial history.
“Only he who has a legacy in the past has a grounding in the future.”
The motto of Danfoss founder Mads Clausen will take physical form, when the Danfoss Museum re-opens on March 23, 2018. The cutting-edge changes to the museum has been made possible thanks to a donation from the Bitten & Mads Clausen Foundation.
The Danfoss Museum is located in Mads Clausen’s childhood home in Nordborg. As a young boy, Mads Clausen spent time in his great-grandfather's workshop, and this is where his interest in engineering began. The dining room contains the table where he told his parents about his ideas. And in the loft is Mads Clausen's first and favorite office, which he kept until his untimely death, and where he tested the very first expansion valve in a bucket of water, which dripped into the dining room below. Mads Clausen was scolded for the wet floor, but the valve was tight, and 1933 saw the beginning of Danfoss. The rest belongs to industrial history and can be seen at the museum. Today, Danfoss is a global company employing more than 26,000 people.
This is a re-opening and a complete upgrade of the existing museum, which animates and updates the history of Denmark’s largest industrial company through audio-visual and digital effects. The museum opens at a time when Danfoss finds itself in the midst of its own digital transformation.
And the Chairman of the Bitten & Mads Clausen Foundation, Peter Mads Clausen, highlights the importance of Danfoss being rooted in history – while the company is on a journey of change:
“We feel the greatest respect for maintaining and continuing our history. Our heritage helps realize the Danfoss DNA; it reflects our thinking, our CSR policy, our credibility, and our significance. In order to have a base for the future, it is necessary that we know about our origins,” says Peter Mads Clausen, adding:
“The historical aspect is of major value to us, and I am convinced that the Danfoss Museum is entirely in line with the spirit of my mother and father. Our history is fantastic; we maintain it, and we want to show it.”
It is the quantity and quality of the historical materials that make up the framework of the Danfoss Museum. Right from the beginning, the company has benefited from the efforts of future-oriented and dedicated people, who have seen the necessity of maintaining all the items which tell the story of Danfoss’ industrial adventure. Many previous employees still work for the museum, via the Danfoss Historical Association, carrying out huge, voluntary efforts to preserve history.
The museum is maintained under the auspices of Danfoss Historical Archives, which has more than 60,000 black & white photos, 100,000 negatives, and 40,000 old photos kept on glass plates; to these can be added digital photos and more than 100,000 written sources and physical objects, including all the old Danfoss products, such as the first expansion valve, the first radiator thermostat, the first VLT drive, and first hydraulic motor.
