Switched-on efficiency Lovato

Recognising excellence Henkel

switched-on efficiency

Lovato is a global manufacturer of low-voltage electrical switching devices for industrial applications. The company leads the field in industrial automation and energy management solutions. Philip Yorke reports on a family-owned institution that continues to set industry standards through innovation and unrivalled customer service.

For almost 100 years, Lovato Electric has been designing and manufacturing low-voltage electrical devices for industrial applications. Established in 1922 in Bergamo, Italy, Lovato Electric remains a privately-owned company that is managed by the fourth generation of the same family of entrepreneurs that founded it.

In 1992, Lovato was among the first companies in Italy to obtain the management standard ISO 9001 certification. Today it has a portfolio of over 18,000 products, all of which comply with the strictest requirements demanded by the latest international electrical and safety standards.

Lovato’s extensive product range includes motor protection circuit breakers, contactors, pushbuttons, switch disconnectors, limit switches, and digital multi-meters. This is in addition to its range of energy meters, soft starters, AC motor drives, automatic power factor controllers and engine and generator controllers. It is worth noting that all the company’s products are designed and produced in-house by Lovato Electric.

The company’s mission is to provide competitive products and services in the industrial automation and energy management industries through its 14 overseas branches and broad network of over 100 importers. These carefully selected partners guarantee the availability of Lovato Electric products in more than 100 countries worldwide. Smarter energy

Smart management of energy resources offers a major competitive advantage to any modern company, as it not only provides significant savings in operating costs, but also improves the levels of environmental protection.

Smart energy management requires the thorough analysis of consumption habits and the implementation of one-off and progressive actions, in order to derive significant savings from various targeted capital investments.

One essential aspect of this process is the continuous monitoring of consumption and the analysis of consumption data. This must be achieved using combined and integrated software and hardware systems tailored to meet the needs of the Energy Manager.

Such results are essential to meet the EU’s strict energy audits for large energy-consuming companies. They also facilitate the collection of operational and consumption data that energy service managers need to compile in order to access ‘white certificates’ and in particular those for detailed analysis.

The key objectives targeted by the monitoring process include: The use of no more energy than necessary, flattening off demand, avoiding penalties and identifying all mains supply disturbances. Lovato’s experience is unrivalled in the management of energy resources and can be relied upon to optimise energy efficiency and certification compliance.

Dynamic switching capacity

Lovato Electric is a truly global player and provides a comprehensive range of products and services throughout every continent. The company recently won a major contract to provide a broad spectrum of switchgear solutions for a leading tyre company in Indonesia.

PT. Gajah Tunggal Tbk. is the largest tyre manufacturer in Southeast Asia. The company produces and distributes tyres for passenger cars, SUV’s, commercial vehicles, off-road vehicles, industrial vehicles and motorcycles. The company also manufactures and distributes rubber related products such as synthetic rubber, tyre cords, inner tubes, flaps, o-rings and many others.

Last year Gajah Tunggal built a new state-of-the-art plant in Tangerang, Banten, West Java, called TBR2000, which was equipped with several welding robots. The Indonesian distributor of Lovato Electric, PT Maxindo, was involved from the outset in the project for the supply of components for the manufacturing of seven large dynamic-switching capacitor banks.

Advanced Lovato Electric components have been utilised for the manufacturing of the tyre company’s capacitor banks, which have been configured to take advantage of the master-slave functionality of Lovato’s unique DCRG8: for 6 banks of 3080kVar each. The installation was performed with 1 master DCRG8 and 2 slaves DCRG8 controller, communicating with each other via a Lovato RS485.

In such a configuration, it has been possible to control the total power of 3080kVar on each bank. Each Master controller of every capacitor bank has been equipped with the latest EXP1013 ethernet expansion module. This allows for the remote monitoring of the whole installation using the existing ethernet network that is available in the factory. In total, Lovato Electric Indonesia installed 21 automatic power factor controllers, 21 interfaces and 176 Thyristor modules.

Sustainable energy efficiency

UK-based company Fuchs is the world’s largest independent lubricant manufacturer and recently Lovato Electric were asked to develop a system to monitor both their energy consumption and generation as part of their compliance with the ISO50001:2011 Energy Management System.

Fuchs is a company that is dedicated to sustainable manufacturing and has invested in solar panels across their Stoke-on-Trent, UK manufacturing site, which are expected to generate over 380,000kWh of clean, renewable energy every year. This installation alone should generate over 12 per cent of the required energy for their state-of-the-art manufacturing plant.

The Lovato Electric system that has been installed comprises energy meters, data concentrators and power analysers networked via Lovato’s own Synergy software. The new system is measuring electricity consumption that is fed in from its solar generated power systems along with its water and gas usage. This now allows Fuchs to monitor and report on compliance to ISO50001:2011 and this installation was subsequently highly commended by the BSI auditing inspector. 46 DME Energy Meters, 14 DMG power analysers, EXP expansion modules, DMECD Data Concentrators and Synergy Software are now combining to help this company monitor and highlight areas where they can significantly save energy and in doing so cut costs and protect the environment. n