Indubitably the world's largest manufacturer of enclosures the German company Rittal has had a presence in South Africa since the early '80s acting through an agent, Controp Rittal in Edenvale, whose main business was industrial enclosures. The company's management decided last year that it could not neglect South Africa and that the local agent was only addressing a small part of the company's product range, so Rittal in South Africa was established in March this year through a buyout of Controp Rittal. This included all stock and assets including the 3000 m2 warehouse which has since been significantly refurbished and upgraded to accommodate such features as a display area. German-born Thorsten Klaas who had worked for Rittal for more than 10 years was appointed as managing director having just completed a similar assignment where he established a Middle East subsidiary for the company operating out of both Cairo and Dubai.
Rittal is still a privately owned company and is part of the Friedhelm Loh Group, which was established in 1961 to meet the demand for industrial enclosures for electrical switching equipment. Today, as seen below, the company offers a wide variety of enclosures for many applications and has subsidiaries and production facilities worldwide. The revolution that Rittal brought to the enclosure market was the idea of a standardised and more cost-effective enclosure that could be manufactured using series production (up to that time enclosures were produced individually for a specific application). The production facilities today number 19 and are found on five continents with facilities in Eastern and Western Europe, North America, India, the Far East, Australia and China. As the philosophy of the company is to minimise delivery time to customers, in Germany alone there are 22 information and delivery centres, while the UK has six strategically located distribution centres and a production facility. Rittal employs in excess of 10 000 people throughout the world and is by far the largest subsidiary of the Friedhelm Loh Group. In terms of quality, most Rittal companies are certified to ISO 9001:2000 while the company has taken a firm stand on the environment with all of its German production facilities and delivery centres being accredited to ISO 14001. Rittal also offers its products in both metric and the old imperial units such as 19-inch racks.
All of Rittal's global plants work to the same standards of quality but are obviously close to its markets minimising the cost and time of delivery. The company holds over 2000 worldwide patents and 300 patterns, and production today is highly automated again resulting in consistent high quality. The Headquarters of Rittal is located in Herborn in Germany, and it is here that highly qualified and experienced teams are continually developing new product solutions for both today and tomorrow. To keep its leading position in enclosure technology the company needs to remain highly innovative.
Rittal ensures its leading position by being the trendsetter, allowing competitors to follow its lead. It also believes in being able to deliver a wide range of off-the-shelf products, which can be customised to the local needs of clients. The company motto is 'Everything out of one hand' with the focus here being on solutions. If you thought that your enclosure requirements are unique it is interesting to note that Rittal offers an off-the-shelf range of over 8000 standard products (before customisation) and Rittal Electronic Systems offers complete know-how in the field of electronic packaging, from variable sub-rack systems right up to complex microcomputer packaging systems. To finish off the system panels can be machined, engraved, painted or treated in a variety of processes to customer requirement.
One of the first objectives of Thorsten was to instil the philosophy of Rittal into the local staff and this has resulted in ongoing changes. Today, the company employs some 25 people, a figure which is expected to double by the end of next year. Although the local facility is not yet a production plant it has the capability, using the modularity of the standard systems, to assemble, make modifications and tailor enclosures to provide customer specific solutions. A large stock, appropriate to the needs of the local industry is held, ensuring the off-the-shelf commitment can be maintained.
Rittal has aggressive plans in place to expand its local sales organisation initially to Cape Town and Port Elizabeth and ultimately countrywide. Longer-term this will be expanded to other sub-Saharan countries but often major contracts in these countries are project managed and engineered by South African companies thus obviating the need to sell directly. The company operates through six business units:
Industrial enclosures
Suitable, cost-effective solutions to suit essentially every application. Products offered range from small boxes and compact enclosures through to large enclosures, console systems, command panel systems and complete industrial workstations. Rittal also offer a wide range of standalone or wall-mounted kiosks, the latter being aimed for use by children or wheelchair-bound adults. These complete kiosks can be supplied with a thermal printer.
Electronic packaging
Offerings range from variable sub-track systems through to a variety of enclosure solutions, operating and monitoring solutions, backplanes, power supplies and climate control systems. At the higher end of its product range it can supply complete microcomputer and industrial PC solutions for such protocols as VMEbus, CompactPCI, ATCA and ATX. These solutions are fully assembled, ready-wired and tested.
System climate control
This focused on providing the correct ambient conditions for every application and especially sensitive electronics. On offer is a wide range of cooling units, heat exchangers, fan and filter units as well as enclosure heaters. A full advisory service is provided and use is made of Rittal's proprietary software Rittal Therm. The company used the recent Electra Mining Exhibition to launch its new Top-Therm range of cooling systems specified from 300 W to 1500 W.
Modern power distribution systems
These are becoming even more powerful and customers worldwide are demanding the security of internationally recognised and approved power distribution components. Rittal specialises in offering switchgear designers innovative systems fully in line with regulations. Its solutions are type tested on short-circuit resistance, this being carried out by the relevant accredited laboratories. Tested bus bar systems are available with ratings from 250 A to 3,2 kA.
IT solutions
With emerging IT technologies, network technology is placing ever-increasing demands on the infrastructure and on component system suppliers. Rittal has been blazing an innovative trail for years with consistent focus on the needs of the end-user. Whether a small corridor distributor for a fibre-optic network is required, or a combined distribution and component enclosure, Rittal offers an optimal and practical solution for many applications.
Communications systems
Requirements of mobile communications, IT technology, environmental technology and power distribution are catered for. Where many applications are outdoor, high quality materials are used to protect against corrosion and vandalism, while providing a high level of RF attenuation and UV stability. Rittal can even provide earthquake protection if required.
Through its business units the objective is to provide a complete solution from a single source. With its experience gained over the years Rittal allows customers to make use of this know-how for integrative solutions. Recent success stories include a terminal touch screen and complete PC for a hospital foyer, an outdoor enclosure with climate control for the desert state of Dubai, a shock-absorbing rack for high-speed trains and a server cabinet with integrated security management for a computer centre.
Existing South African customers include many of the automotive manufacturers (such as BMW, VW and Daimler-Chrysler) and the mining industry including De Beers. It also has major contracts with Eskom and its subcontractors such as Siemens. Growth areas include telecommunications (Telkom and the new fixed line operator) and the mobile phone business where Rittal already is the main supplier to leading global equipment suppliers including Nokia, Siemens and Ericsson. While Thorsten intends to focus strongly on the IT market he intends to increase the industrial enclosure side of the business as well. Globally Rittal is active in a wide range of markets including aerospace, machine tool, control systems, process control, transport and petrochemicals and Rittal in SA will obviously use the parent company's expertise in these fields to enhance its local offerings. Where stringent cleaning methods are employed in the food industry Rittal offers cabinets with protection category IP69K, which are resistant to very high pressure (10 MPA), hot (80°C) water.
As for existing and new clients the message is that Rittal itself is here with a new approach, new products and a new team. Rittal will now focus as well on the technological side with regular seminars addressing the benefits of its products. Customer days where the product range will be described and where clients can view various enclosures in the display area are being organised and the first one was held in November with more than 100 participants. Thorsten intends that the local subsidiary lives up to the company's reputation of providing very high value products with excellent sales and after-sales service.
After the Rittal business is well established in Africa with a comprehensive sales and marketing network, Thorsten intends to add complementary products from other sister companies in the Loh Group. Top of his list in terms of local opportunities are Lampertz and EPLAN. Lampertz offer complete IT infrastructures in the form of data rooms for example, obviously making extensive use of enclosures from Rittal. EPLAN Software and Service offer CAE and CAD software solutions for engineering, system and industrial design with specific focus on the automotive industry. Its installed base is more than 44 000 workstations and expert assistance is provided to allow customer-specific modifications to the software.
Despite some local doom and gloom associated mainly with the strength of the rand, Rittal has taken the strategic decision that South and southern Africa is a growing market, particularly as more telecommunications and power infrastructure is rolled out. Rittal decided that now was the right time to invest. Besides growing its market share the company wants to bring to the attention of all its local customers the Rittal commitment to quality, service and provision of total solutions. The local team will work closely with its German counterparts to provide the latter in terms of cutting-edge solutions for the unique African environment.
For more information contact Rittal, 011 609 8294, www.rittal.co.za
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