Depending on who you talk to in the switches and switchgear sector in New Zealand right now you will get a mixture of “quiet”, “steady as she goes” or “we are running around like blue-arsed flies making sure we meet our deadlines and don’t give the competition an ‘in’”.

Ross Gibbons, director of Switchboard Services on Auckland’s North Shore typifies the competitive nature of the market right now. The company has a “reasonable number of ongoing industrial projects keeping the company busy”.

Would he be prepared to give “Electrical + Automation Technology readers an insight into who those customers are, what products and applications they are using? In a word: “No.”

Are manufacturers and equipment suppliers coming to the party? Again, the single negative.

At the other end of the spectrum are the likes of Vynco Industries NZ marketing co-ordinator, Jeremy Mead and System Controls’ Roger Scott. It’s not quite a case of “Recession; what recession”, but the impression you are left with is one of successful companies working hard to maintain their share of market and looking for niches to find havens in a very competitive market generally.

System Controls Limited (SCL), which styles itself as the country’s leading systems’ integrator and specialist switch panel designer and manufacturer is not having much difficulty in keeping its order books plump, both in the local market and through its Australian and Chilean operations.

On the runway, ready for lift-off is a specialist switchboard for a leading airport baggage handling company, a challenge which SCL is prepared to take on, according to Scott.

“Since most of their systems are installed in faraway countries, we have to be certain that as the local suppliers of critical equipment, we must not only be up to scratch with international standards and regulations, but also work to the highest quality standards of reliability – because they cannot ask an airport to wait while we try and fly out someone from New Zealand to fix a critical component which hasn’t been installed correctly,” he says.

Specialist niches, under SCL’s Calibre brand, also help more and more competitive times, with SCL developing a burgeoning reputation in the cement-handling business globally and Calibre™ MeatWorks solution used at all levels of the abattoir operation – and, boasting its patented technology, can produce material savings of up to 30 percent.

“At plant level the Calibre software provides full control and data capture, from carcass to cut throughout the slaughter, chiller and process room operations. At management level it provides valuable operating information and can run detailed operational and productivity reports,” says Scott.

“Our innovative MD™ Bagger System is an intrinsic component of the Calibre™ MeatWorks solution, providing an inline packaging solution. Information collated during the process can be printed directly onto the bag, ensuring each prime cut is uniquely identifiable. The system ensures each bag is custom-made to fit the prime cut, reducing plastic material wastage and cost.”

The company recently delivered the Bagger to Machinery Developments Limited, led by managing director, Richard Melville.

Kiwi ingenuity leading the way again.

Jason Woodcock, manager of Tyco Electronics Power division, says the downturn hasn’t affected the utility market as much as other areas – like industrial and wholesale.

“Utilities are taking the opportunity, with a downturn in private work, to build and spend time and effort on ramping up their own networks,” he says.

That has had a positive spin-off for companies in that market. What about products which are gaining traction in this market?

“Not so much a brand new product, but one which has started to take-off in quite a big way is mechanical range-taking connectors, which are volted-styled connectors, versus the old compression type. This has a wider range-taking capability than the earlier device.

“They are full-tested to international standards. They are more reliable, so the customers are taking to them – some even talking about the ‘joy of using them’ – with a resultant gain in market share. Both the logistics people and the guys in the field like it, because it is making their job easier.

“Because of their range taking, you can reduce your inventory quite dramatically, with the obvious gains in cost efficiencies. And under ‘fault conditions’; if you’ve got people from the power company going out, they can take three or four connectors and can pretty much do any fault correction they are likely to come across.

“In the past where they might have been carrying as many as 25 connectors and still found they did not have the right one, those days are now over. They can now be sure that when a vehicle rolls out, pretty much 90 percent of the applications will be covered, by a very small range of product.

“Anything they find in a fault condition, they now know they can fix,” says Woodcock.
On the brand new product front, innovation is still seen as the driver to maintain customer loyalty and grow market share in a tight market.

HBM Australasia’s sales engineer, Tinh Ngo, is more than pleased with the company’s EASYswitch process controller, TEDS, which now allows the testing of up to five switch elements in one cycle. The range of different sensors has been increased for improved monitoring of switching systems for power distribution in automotive or high-quality consumer goods.

Switches are amongst the world’s simplest control units. Their correct functionality is essential at all times. Switches and locking systems make the handling of complex high-technology products easy and reliable. The quality of your switches is therefore of paramount importance.