To honor Peter Hammond, inventor of the Perfect Harmony drive, Siemens
announced today that it will fund a $40,000 collegiate scholarship in
his name. The Siemens Peter Hammond Scholarship Fund will be awarded to
an undergraduate student who has achieved outstanding academic success
in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at University
of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering.
Siemens is celebrating the success of Hammond and the 20th
anniversary of the Perfect Harmony drive with an employee picnic at the
company’s New Kensington facility near Pittsburgh on Aug. 9. Employees
and their family members are invited to attend and tour the world-class
factory.
“I am privileged and honored to celebrate these two milestones with our
employees and the customers we serve,” said Anne Cooney, President,
Process Industries and Drives, U.S. “To be able to invest in our future
with the Siemens Peter Hammond Scholarship Fund is a true reflection on
the cornerstone we built with Perfect Harmony and have continued to
nurture and develop.”
The Perfect Harmony drive came into existence in 1994 after Hammond
concocted the idea and put thoughts into action. Hammond was working on
scaling up a low-voltage drive design for medium-voltage, when he had a
better idea: a modular, scalable and power-quality compliant,
medium-voltage variable frequency drive (VFD) system. Twenty months
later the first PERFECT HARMONY prototype — a 1,000 hp VFD capable of
4160 volts output — was successfully tested with more than 5,000 feet of
submersible medium-voltage cable. When the drive went into production,
its business grew exponentially.
More than 13,000 Perfect Harmony drives are used across the globe today,
and around 70 percent of all medium-voltage, variable frequency drives
produced globally are based on the original Perfect Harmony topology.
The drive is crucial in several industries, including oil and gas and
power generation. The drive is used by industries worldwide to control
motors, which drive pumps, fans, conveyors and compressors that give
people the standard of living they enjoy today. The frequency of
electricity that goes into the motor is often varied to make it go
faster or slower, allowing its speed to match what’s needed for the work
to be done with no wasted energy.
Today, Sinamics Perfect Harmony is the world’s leading medium voltage
drive, backed by a robust team of Industry Services. Each year, the
drives help power more than 100 million homes – nearly all the homes in
the U.S. And, the drives purify millions of gallons of drinking water in
major cities across the U.S., keeping rivers, lakes and oceans clear and
free from pollution.
Attendees for the event included State Representative Ryan Warner,
Honorable Erin C Molchany (Southwest Director for Pennsylvania Governor
Tom Wolf) and Honorable Anthony Costa, (Southwest Pennsylvania Director
for Lt. Governor Mike Stack). Molchany addressed the assemblage with a
message from Governor Wolf.
Siemens Process Industries and Drives helps its customers
increase productivity, safety, reliability, efficiency and
time-to-market for plants and processes with innovative, integrated
technology across the entire lifecycle.
Siemens Corporation is a U.S. subsidiary of Siemens AG, a global
technology powerhouse that has stood for engineering excellence,
innovation, quality, reliability and internationality for more than 165
years. With 343,000 employees in more than 200 countries, Siemens
reported worldwide revenue of approximately $98 billion in fiscal 2014.
Siemens in the USA reported revenue of $22.2 billion, including $5.2
billion in exports, and employs approximately 46,000 people throughout
all 50 states and Puerto Rico.
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