TAKING UPS TECHNOLOGY TO A NEW LEVEL The Piller Group is a global leader in the manufacture of uninterruptable power supply (UPS) protection systems. Philip Yorke talked to Andrew Dyke, the company’s global managing director, about its latest rotary and hybrid UPS systems and its growth in supply to the world’s mega data centres.
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he Piller Group is a wholly owned subsidiary of the global UK engineering group, Langley Holdings, and can trace its roots back to 1919 when Anton Piller began manufacturing electrically-driven fans in Osterode-am-Harz in Germany. The company saw consistent growth, developing the first aircraft ground power supply systems and frequency converters in the early 1960s, and by the 1980s was responsible for developing the world’s first rotary hybrid UPS system known today as ‘Uniblock’. In 2005 the Piller Group was acquired by Langley Holdings plc, a British, privately owned diversified global engineering group. Today Piller manufactures high capacity rotary UPS, hybrid UPS, diesel UPS, static UPS and static transfer switches. The company maintains a unique position as the only UPS manufacturer in the world with a range of products that encompasses both rotary and static power supply technologies. From this strong position Piller is able to offer the most cost-effective and appropriate solution
for any specific UPS application. The company’s head office is located in Osterode, in Germany where Piller was originally founded. The Piller Group employs more than 750 people with regional offices in Asia, Europe and the Americas and in 2011 recorded sales of over €200 million.
Expanding range of products and services Piller’s diverse portfolio of products and services continues to expand in order to meet the growing demands of the global power supply industry. The company offers critical power solutions across a wide range of applications, including banking, telecommunications, outside broadcasters and healthcare facilities as well as airports and air traffic control centres. Another growth area for Piller is the computer data centres market and other similar operations that require a totally reliable, high capacity power source. Piller power converters and related products are in widespread use in both military and civil applications, providing ground
power systems to airports worldwide and shore-to-ship and on-board power systems for both submarines and surface vessels. At the heart of every rotary UPS is the tailor-made Uniblock machine which comes in many forms and represents the hallmark of Piller’s product quality and reliability. The company’s latest generation of static UPS and AP premium products, are just two of a limited number of Piller products on the market that offer sinusoidal input with the use of both IGBT rectifiers and inverter technology. Other premium power systems from the company include the Apotrans range of static transfer switches and the unique Powerbridge kinetic energy storage system for battery replacement and voltage stabilisation. Mr Dyke said, “There is a growing global demand for energy and higher voltage UPS systems, and our latest Powerbridge 21 product is the largest single energy system in the world and our well known Uniblock+ range offers higher efficiency for high voltage applications, designed to meet the ever-increasing
