Baumgartner Automation, an Austria-based control and switchgear manufacturer, responds mainly to inquiries from the construction industry. These include some impressive flagship projects, such as a major contract for a quarry in the United Arab Emirates. For this project, Baumgartner Automation relied on a collaboration with Rittal and used a Rittal Perforex machining centre. The switchgear manufacturer delivered a total of 68 configured Rittal TS 8 enclosures to the Ras Al Khaimah Emirate.
Up to 98% of the items in the tender were from Rittal. That was also a reason for the cooperation.
Certification and standard-compliant system products convince
Two particular details were decisive for the project: For one thing, Baumgartner is certified to ISO 9001. Besides that, the planned cooperation with Rittal was important to the clients from the UAE. This was to ensure compliance with the EN 61439 standard, which has been in effect since November 2014. The standard includes new definitions of technical terms, changes to the type test and more extensive documentation requirements for switchgear manufacturers. Thanks to the Rittal technology included in the tender, an end-to-end solution with standard-compliant system products, allowing simple design verification, was possible for the construction of the switchgear and control unit.
Standard-compliant documentation
The Rittal “Power Engineering 6.0” planning software helps in both the planning and configuration of switchgear, as well as the generation of standard-compliant documentation. It creates the appropriate design verifications, including the necessary test report references, at the push of a button. In addition, the engineering tool contains a number of checklists. This way, switchgear manufacturers can check if all the requirements specified in the standard have been complied with. The necessary tests can thus be systematically performed and documented.
Power distribution made easy
The panel builder relied entirely on the Rittal experts in designing the power distribution for the project. “The special features for us, however, were surely the busbar systems for distributing around seven megawatts of power, because levels of current were flowing that we simply did not want to get our fingers on,” Mr Waldenberger recalled. Consequently, the Rittal Modification Center was contracted to construct the distributors in a fully mechanical way, right from the start. Baumgartner Automation appreciates Rittal’s great expertise and solution-driven approach to meeting these complex requirements. “It meant that we could save a lot of time,” Mr Waldenberger explained.
Opportunities of continuity recognized at an early stage
The success of Baumgartner Automation has not come out of the blue. The company is happy to be one of the industry’s pioneers. “We were one of the first to acquire a machining centre with which we could machine the enclosures in-house. The 2001 decision to procure the Perforex was based on gut feelings – we do not not regret it to this day. In 2016, we invested in a new Rittal Automation Systems Perforex machining centre.” Baumgartner does not process anything without using the machining centre. “Hardly any sheet metal is manually processed nowadays, since the quality, the repeatability and the machine series are all optimal,” Johann Waldenberger explained. With its Perforex, Rittal has attained a new level of continuity plant manufacturing. Switchgear manufacturers benefit from the consistent expertise and increasing productivity.