The ongoing pandemic is a stern test of strength for many companies. Surviving the crisis and emerging from it more vigorous is the primary goal. “What we need are strong and reliable partners who can support companies in the long term – throughout the crisis and far beyond. Future partners with innovative strength and enablers for industrial transformation are needed,” says Uwe Scharf, Managing Director Business Units and Marketing at Rittal.

The pressure to change is enormous: Companies must question outdated solutions and processes and, more than ever before, introduce measures for saving costs and increasing efficiency. The Friedhelm Loh Group’s Eplan, Rittal and German Edge Cloud companies are guiding their customers along this path. Sebastian Seitz, Eplan’s CEO adds: “One hundred per cent digital data as the single ‘source of truth’ – available from planning to engineering to manufacturing – forms the basis for further automation. Industrialisation in panel building and switchgear manufacturing and the transformation that accompanies it are in full swing. End-to-end data availability is the essential requirement here.”

The practical programme of presentations at SPS Connect

In the context of SPS Connect, Thomas Michels, Senior Director Cloud Business Software at Eplan, will be presenting “Networked Engineering in the Cloud”. Customers and automation experts have been actively involved in the run-up to the presentation. It will paint a real picture of today’s automation requirements in engineering and provide valuable recommendations for action. Eplan eView is also on the digital agenda, as is the new data standard that Eplan is proactively promoting. Around 60 manufacturers have already made their components available (with about 80,000 data sets) in the Eplan Data Portal following the new standard.

Another speaker is Dr. Dirk Pieler, Head of Rittal’s Industry Business Unit. In his key note address on “What matters now – Industrialisation in panel building and switchgear manufacturing”, he will show that nowadays, industrialisation pays off much earlier than many people expect. End-to-end data is the key to success, and this helps in avoiding errors and significantly increasing productivity. The key to this is the digital twin, which links every process step from engineering to enclosure machining, wiring and testing through to servicing. Further support for improved efficiency is provided by configuration tools and technology for housings and enclosures. This is joined by automation solutions from wiring processing to panel machining and complete enclosures, as well as a 24-hour delivery service within Germany.

Services: preferably digital

In the wake of the altered market conditions, Eplan adjusted its business early on to a working environment that is now dominated by home offices. For months now, all training and consulting services have been available virtually. Training courses that had previously been held face-to-face at training centres are now being shown online. So that the now-pressing issues in engineering can be discussed, Eplan’s consultants are also available via video conference. They are assisting customers in their digitisation strategy and helping to prepare for a higher level of automation.

Innovative product solutions for industry and IT

Rittal has come up with some new developments in the field of enclosure and cooling technology. These include the new VX SE free-standing enclosure, the AX plastic enclosure and the latest energy-efficient “Blue e+” outdoor cooling units. The new AX plastic enclosures round off Rittal’s range of compact enclosures. The manufacturer now offers the best of two worlds: the advantages of sophisticated technology combined with the benefits of an extremely robust material. The AX plastic enclosure protects the electrical components even in very harsh environments, such as outdoors. Its new mounting functions make rapid expansion possible and provide a greater scope for installation using smart technology.

Rittal’s other product highlights include numerous new developments in the field of IT infrastructure. Here, the focus is on the new VX IT Rack and RiMatrix Next Generation (NG), the future platform for creating IT infrastructures. With the RiMatrix NG, Rittal has developed a new module system to set up data centres flexibly, securely and rapidly. Based on an open platform architecture, individual solutions can be realised worldwide for every future IT scenario: whether these be single-rack or container solutions, central data centres, distributed edge data centres, or high-scale colocation, cloud and hyperscale data centres. RiMatrix NG is the first platform to support the use of OCP direct current technology in standard environments.

Sister company German Edge Cloud is also presenting its new ONCITE development, the first AI-based and real-time capable edge cloud solution for in-house Industry 4.0 processes.

Rittal, headquartered in Herborn, Germany, is a leading global provider of solutions for industrial enclosures, power distribution, climate control and IT infrastructure, as well as software and services. Systems made by Rittal are deployed in over 90 per cent of all industries across the world, including machine building and plant engineering, food and beverages, and IT and telecommunications.

The international market leader’s product portfolio includes configurable enclosures, with data available across the entire production process. Smart Rittal cooling systems, with up to 75 per cent lower power and CO2 consumption, can communicate with the production landscape, enabling predictive maintenance and servicing. The offering also includes innovative IT products, from IT racks and modular data centres, to edge and hyperscale computing solutions.

Leading software providers Eplan and Cideon support the value chain, providing interdisciplinary engineering solutions, while Rittal Automation Systems offers solutions for switchgear. Within Germany, Rittal can supply products on demand within 24 hours – with precision, flexibility and efficiency.

Founded in 1961, Rittal is the largest company in the owner-operated Friedhelm Loh Group. The Friedhelm Loh Group is active worldwide, with 18 production sites and 80 international subsidiar-ies. It has 12,100 employees and posted revenues of Euro 2.6 billion in fiscal 2019. In 2020, the family-run business was named one of Germany’s leading employers by the Top Employers Institute, for the twelfth year running. Within the scope of a Germany-wide survey, Focus Money magazine identified the Friedhelm Loh Group as one of the nation’s best providers of vocational training for the fifth time in 2020.

For more information, visit www.rittal.com and www.friedhelm-loh-group.com.