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SPARKS
ELECTRICAL NEWS
AUGUST 2017
CONTRACTORS’
CORNER
6
C
embre SpA area manager Paolo Baldo,
recently visited South Africa recently as part
of a delegation to conclude a distribution
agreement with ElectroMechanica (EM), and to
demonstrate its extensive product range to potential
customers.
According to Baldo, Cembre SpA prides itself
on the fact that it produces every component in
its products; from design to manufacturing and
servicing, in-house. “We seldom rebrand other
company’s components as our own. We have to
be sure of the quality of the products we sell, and
the only way to guarantee this is if we manufacture
everything ourselves,” he says.
TheItalianOEMspecialises inelectricalconnection
systems that combine a copper connector, a die,
and a tool in a single integrated package. “We sell
a total system as opposed to a standalone product.
If you have a bad connector and a good tool, the
result remains a faulty electrical connection and vice
versa. Our systems approach is predicated on our
commitment to the highest product quality possible,”
Baldo says.
Cembre SpA also manufactures an industrial
marking range to label and identify a range of
electrical and automation components, from wires
to panels, push buttons, and circuit breakers.
“Whilethere isaplethoraofconsumableproducers,
there are few making both the consumables and the
printers themselves from scratch as we do. Again, we
own the proprietary technology that makes up the
entire system, which has proven to be very good for
us in terms of growth,” Baldo explains.
Lastly, Cembre SpA produces speciality products
for the maintenance of railway lines. Traditionally,
electrical rail contacts are welded to provide the
necessary energy transmission between the cable
and the rail itself. However, this process was highly
dependent on the expertise of the worker carrying
out the welding process.
“We tried to figure out how to make the process
more reliable, and less dependent on external
factors such as human labour and climatic
conditions,” Baldo stresses. The innovation Cembre
SpA has come up with in this regard involves
extruding a copper bush into a pre-drilled hole,
which results in the external surface of the bush
being tightened and sealed against the hole surface,
in order to provide the necessary electrical contact.
Baldo explains that Cembre SpA was
approached by EM to become its exclusive
distributor in Southern Africa after CEO Dave van
den Berg began using some of its products locally.
“This coincided with our own strategy of moving
away from projects themselves to broader-based
distribution. The advantage of projects is their size,
scope, and duration, but they are highly sensitive to
economic conditions and financial uncertainty.”
Africa remains a key focus for Cembre SpA,
Baldo says. “Mediterranean Africa is more akin to
Europe, while Sub-Saharan Africa continues to be
driven by South Africa itself. Overall it is a market
with a huge potential for growth.”
Commenting on his visit to South Africa, Baldo
reveals that there has been much interest in
the Italian manufacturer’s innovative products,
testament to EM’s strategy of introducing only
the best and highest-quality technology available
globally.
Enquiries:
www.em.co.zaELECTROMECHANICA INTRODUCES
ITALIAN ELECTRICAL
CONNECTION SYSTEMS
UTILITY MAINTENANCE
FLYING HIGH
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
equipment, they are visible on the thermal camera
and can signal that there is a fault on the power line.
While thermal cameras can be used by a person
on the ground, this can be laborious and time-
consuming. It is also almost impossible when
power lines are located above rugged terrain.
Botha says drones are being used to great effect
in monitoring power lines. “With power lines, there
can be magnetic GPS interferences. However,
owing to the sophisticated camera lenses that
UAV Industries uses, we are able to fly at a safe
enough distance from a power line, which negates
the necessity for a specialised inspection drone.
This means we are able to use a consumer-based
drone with a special camera lens attached.”
Thanks to the use of drones, these types of
assessments and inspections no longer require
expensive equipment and dangerous acrobatics.
With tight profit margins and safety becoming
increasingly important to utilities, drones are
ensuring efficiency and situational awareness,
as well as the ability to identify easily avoidable
problems such as loosening electrical cables,
missing screws and so on.
Now carrying the same technology used by
helicopters, drones can reveal the smallest risks
in the electrical grid, allowing utilities to focus their
maintenance budgets where it matters most, and
prioritise the actions necessary to mitigate those
risks and avert power outages and downtime.
With the cost and time saving benefits they offer,
it would not be hard to picture a future in which
utilities could put smaller drones on every single
truck, allowing them to do site inspections quickly
and easily.