Test of success Sonel

n TEST OF SUCCESS

The Polish company Sonel SA is one of the leading producers of testing appliances for the EEC and telecoms industries. The company has achieved this position through a combination of state-of-theart production lines, strategic investments and attention to quality. Industry Europe looks at some of the company’s latest and most popular products, many of which will be showcased at this year’s Hannover Messe show (located at H12 F79).

Established 20 years ago in 1994, Sonel has grown from a small company to one of the foremost European producers of testing appliances. Currently the largest manufacturer of measuring instruments for the electrical and telecommunication industry in central-eastern Europe, it focuses particularly on the production of instruments that improve safety and quality of life.

Today Sonel sells its products all over the world, to the European, American and Asian markets; in the coming years it will be expanding its export markets still further. As such, it has developed a strong network of strategic partnerships with foreign contractors and suppliers.

According to Krzysztof Wieczorkowski, president of the board, “Export is one of the key elements, owing to which our company constantly develops and continues to improve the quality of products offered… Nowadays, especially in a precisely profiled branch such as the production of measuring devices, there is no development without extensive cooperation with foreign contractors. It’s simply a necessity.”

Products and innovation

Since 2008, Sonel has been operating from state-of-the-art production facilities (including the latest SMT assembly line), built within the premises of the Świdnica sub-zone of WSSE. Sonel’s testers have a number of key applications, including resistance and short-circuit loop impedance, insulation resistance, ground resistance and soil resistivity, residual current protection, temperature and electrical appliance safety.

Aside from testers, the company’s range of products also covers: multifunction meters, thermo-vision cameras, low resistance meters, phase sequence testers, cable route localisers, power quality analysers, clamp meters, multimeters, pyrometers, luxmeters and laboratory appliances.

In fact, in the years since its establishment Sonel has created somewhere in the region of 80 different appliances. To give just a few examples of some of its best-selling products: the MPI-530 multifunction testers are still at the forefront of the market since the MPI range was first introduced and the MRU-200 GPS ground resistance testers are the only product of their kind in the world to feature all known testing methods for ground resistance testing. Other leading products include the UV-260 UV camera as well as a number of PAT range digital meters.

Continuous innovation is a top priority for the company – something which has been highlighted by vice-president Jan Walulik. “Growing competition forces us to construct devices that are more and more complex, with better parameters and functions, and which are, at the same time, cheaper. This sets the goals high for our constructors.”

When it comes to new product developments and future launches, Mr Walulik was not able to be specific but did point to some key focus areas: “I can only say that Sonel is exiting the area of measurements for low voltage installations and devices and plans to enter deeper into the professional energy sector, i.e. into the area of higher voltages. In parallel, we will be developing other types of measurements which we have not performed before, i.e. using signal refraction in the time domain (the so-called reflectometer).” n