100 years of protection technology

At the tech group Schneider Electric, contactor technology is celebrating a special anniversary this year. Exactly 100 years ago, Telemecanique, which has been part of Schneider Electric since 1994, was founded in Nanterre, France, under the name “Manufacture d’Appareillage Electrique”.

The company, which specializes in motor control and sensor technology, brought one of the world's first solutions for switching large electrical outputs onto the market: the bar contactor. And even afterwards, Telemecanique remained one of the world's most influential players in the development of today's modern contactor technology, with countless other innovations such as the first closed motor starter (1935) and the first modular contactor (1973).

Due to their high reliability, the solutions now sold by Schneider Electric under the TeSys brand are installed in more than 90 percent of all elevators and crane systems worldwide. In 2019, the basic principle of contactor technology, which has existed for 100 years, was transferred into the Industry 4.0 era. With TeSys island, Schneider Electric has developed a modular, installable component that combines the classic functions of a contactor with digital features for monitoring and measuring motor currents.

A century full of innovations

“Pioneering spirit is something that still distinguishes us at Schneider Electric today,” says Jessica Bethune, who is responsible for Schneider Electric’s industrial business in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. “We owe our portfolio for motor feeder technology, with which we are now one of the world market leaders, to a tireless pursuit of innovation and further development that has existed for over 100 years. Our digital plug-and-play contactor technology impressively proves that nothing has changed to this day. One of the oldest components of industrial automation is becoming an important factor for predictive maintenance, load management and climate-friendly business.”

With their digital functions for data collection, communication and analysis, today's motor control solutions from Schneider Electric are explicitly designed to improve the availability, safety, service life and energy efficiency of electric drives. As part of a holistic IoT architecture, they are also able to pass on their data to higher-level software solutions, such as a digital twin. With the help of the knowledge gained in this way about material wear, mechanical wear, inefficiencies or causes of failure, it is possible to reduce operating costs and significantly increase productivity. Schneider Electric currently operates three competence centers in the USA, France and China for the further development of motor feeder technology and produces its various contactors in a total of 15 production facilities around the world.