Starting from solutions mainly dedicated to the motorcycle sector, in over 35 years of activity the Italian company Euroswitch managed to develop products for countless applicative sectors, always paying great attention to innovation and quality. And with a very strong relationship with its territory.
Established in 1978 at Sale Marasino (Brescia, Italy), in the enchanting scenario of Iseo Lake, Euroswitch springs precisely from the philosophy that has always accompanied it, offering customers tailor-made solutions for their requirements.
In those years, the Italian companies producing motorcycles were numerous, with brands renowned worldwide, and one of the companies today belonging to what is today “Montel Group” boasted the production of wirings for the motorcycle industry among its main activities. Some customers soon started requiring the development and production of sensors: they so established Euroswitch, not simply a new product but even a new company supporting those customers that, in addition to wirings, demanded also for fuel, oil and temperature sensors for their motorcycles. The experience gained in a highly competitive sector, in terms of product performances, quality and costs like the motorcycle one, has favoured the development of sensors for completely different ambits, too, from agricultural and earth handling machines to household appliances, from ships to trains, from pneumatics to hydraulics etc.
In the early Nineties, the range started further extending with the introduction, in addition to level and temperature sensors, of pressure switches first and of speed, rotation and position levels afterwards.
Over the decades, strongly boosted by the business growth, also the technical, sales and productive organization has achieved a more consolidated structure and has been completed by a division fully dedicated to Research and Development tasks: highly skilled personnel experiences the most cutting-edge technologies and optimizes customized solutions for all customers’ requirements. In 2011, they inaugurated at Pisogne the new futuristic productive unit with high efficiency and functionality features.
The new Research and Development laboratory
To know Euroswitch better, we met the sale manager, Mr Daniele Riva. The first thing he mentioned proudly is the strong relationship of the company with its territory. And what a territory! The company’s headquarters face the Lake of Iseo, and its windows offer the view of an enchanting panorama. Mr Riva tells us that this is a real added value: for customers, in fact, the visit of the company is an opportunity to combine business with pleasure, to talk about work but to spend a time of pleasant leisure, enjoying the view, the climate and the relaxing rhythms of marvellous places. And we can confirm that, after coming here. The relationship with the territory is witnessed also by the provenience of employees, about 60, all residing in the outskirts, subdivided between the Sale Marasino and Pisogne sites, still on the lake, at a distance of few kilometres.
They have recently inaugurated, still in the historical head office at Sale Marasino, a new Research and Development laboratory, feather in the cap of the enterprise.
The new division, which operates in compliance with the most severe international standards, takes up a surface of over 400 s.m. and is equipped with the most sophisticated instruments for the control, measuring and testing of mechanic and electronic components and of finished products. Micrometres, altimeters, hardness testers, load tests, projector, microscope, shaker, climatic chambers etc.: they are only some of the state-of-the-art instruments used, all certified by accredited reference bodies and undergoing constant controls and maintenance.
A broad area is dedicated to equipment and benches for tests and life tests, performed in compliance with reference regulations or according to the specifications dictated by customers; the constant monitoring occurs through a remote visualization system, used by technical offices.
Still in the same laboratory, an area is dedicated to the equipment for the prototype implementation. It is here, in the company’s beating heart, that they give birth to innovative projects and they develop the technological solutions able to satisfy even the most complex demands.
Much more than hydraulics: automotive, petrochemical, medical…
Euroswitch sensors find application in manifold sectors, which range from hydraulics and pneumatics to agricultural and earth handling machines, from motorcycles to special vehicles, from trains to ships, up to the chemical and petrochemical industry. Over the last few years, the range of catalogue products has been notably widened. For whatever tool, it is possible to implement customized versions, according to the specifications indicated by buyers.
The national territory absorbs about 50% of Euroswitch production, while the remaining 50% of products are directly exported to foreign markets even if, as Riva tells us, several of the Italian machines equipped with Euroswitch products are then intended for export. About the presence in foreign markets, Riva specifies: «We have been operating for several years now in China, where the attention to high-quality products is more and more evident, and where we are achieving good results thanks to highly motivated collaborators, also the recent agreement with a big distributor for USA and Canada is giving us the first satisfactions».
Pressure control
The creation and the production of pressure control devices is relevant part of the company’s core business, the pressure and vacuum switches of its wide range are appreciated for their high performances in terms of effectiveness, reliability and safety and are used in endless sectors and applications.
They are available with adjustable or fixed calibration, (calibration range from -900 mb of vacuum up to 400 bars), with N.O. – N.C. contact or with changeover contacts (SPDT), in diaphragm or piston version, with adjustable or fixed hysteresis, for differential pressure and vacuum, as well as naturally “custom” versions with body, materials, electric connections and so on manufactured according to customers’ requests. Caps and connectors for protections from IP54 to IP67 are available for all models. Upon demand, they produce versions with wiring upon design and connectors for protections up to IP6K9K.
Among the latest novelties, Riva presented us the 25D pressure switch in “miniaturized” version, with snap-action contact and bimetal disk, mainly designed for use in boilers and water pumps. It allows a maximum ampacity of 4 A; the regulation field is of 1-4 bars and the hysteresis value can be predefined according to the calibration value. The maximum working pressure is 20 bars, with N.O. or N.C. contacts.
Besides, the versions with connector directly integrated on the sensor body are particularly interesting, with possible presence of various connections (Deutsch – AMP Superseal – AMP Junior Timer – M12x1), for protections up to IP67/IP6K9K.
Other noteworthy products are the pressure-thermostat mod. 700, provided with American and European patent, and the new vacuum-thermostat, designed for the simultaneous control of vacuum or pressure and of temperature in fluid-dynamic circuits of various kinds. They so avoid the false alarm warnings at low temperatures, typical of starting phases when the oil temperature is very high.
Two instruments in one
In the broad catalogue of level sensors, implemented in a very wide range of models and materials for the control by points or in continuous of whatever liquid type (in the Atex versions, too), the company presented us the combined sensor for the control in continuous of level and temperature, with double analogue 4-20 mA output, and the modular IMM level sensor.
The sensor for the control of level and temperature in continuous is devised to satisfy the need expressed by some customers, mainly the manufacturers of big hydraulic power units, of having simultaneously the double control of the level and temperature parameters of the oil used. The new product couples in a single instrument, able to transform directly the ohmic signals of sensitive elements into 4-20 mA standardized signals, the prerogatives of a temperature sensor and of a level sensor in continuous. Through PLC, it is possible to control in continuous the temperature and level value and to adjust the eventual intervention and alarm thresholds. The combination of two generally separated functions in a single instrument makes it a product matching easy installation and competitive cost. In the electromagnetic modular IMM level sensor, the intervention point is instead customizable, from a minimum of about 100 mm up to a maximum of 850 mm, simply cutting the rod to the desired length and fixing it to the float by means of the apposite expansion fitting.  Moreover, the sensor integrates, in a single code, the following fastening options: flange with two, three or six holes and 1” threaded connection. It can be used also in fluids polluted by ferrous particles since the magnet is in the upper part of the sensor and then it does not get in touch with the fluid to be controlled.
An efficient logistic
The presence of an efficient magazine, located in the new forefront productive facility at Pisogne, makes available the main catalogue products rapidly and with prompt delivery terms. The operator team manages the volume of stocks dynamically, with the target of maximising the quality of customer services, constantly updating the stock of reference articles of the various product ranges.
Unity is strength
Euroswitch is part of a big network of companies operating in the cutting-edge outsourcing, which has developed synergies to supply wide-ranging products and services in the sector of wirings, of electronic control and regulation instruments, of level, pressure, temperature and rotation sensors. Mont.el Group counts more than 300 employees and relies on six companies with nine production facilities: the primary ones are at Sale Marasino and in Romania, taking up a total covered surface of over 25,000 square metres. In addition to Euroswitch, there are Mont.el, setup in 1973, operating in the design and production of wirings and electrical-electronic instruments; Intea Engineering, specialized in the design and manufacturing of electronic control equipment; Ame, operating in the design and production of electrical tools for the most various industrial sectors; Sire Romania, committed to the production of wirings and electromechanical assemblies; Techtron Romania, the new-born, for the production of electronic instruments and cards.
What about the crisis? An opportunity for a new organization
At the end of our talk, it is almost unavoidable to face the issue of the international crisis of these last few years. Concerning this, Riva tells us: «We were affected by the 2009-crisis, like all of our customers. In a certain sense, overcoming it has made us stronger. We have essentially rationalized our productive processes and then we have invested in new projects. When the market recovered, we were ready for new challenges. To make a concrete example, in 2009 we started building the new shed at Pisogne. In that period lots of competitors “stepped down”. Such a huge investment seemed almost a craziness in such a negative scenario, without any certainty. We made it, followed by the brand-new laboratory, we have reorganized and “rearmed” with calm. Now, we can then state that we are stronger than before, ready for new challenges ».
The electronic differential 980 indicator
Among its top novelties, the company has recently presented the new highly performing electronic differential indicator, intended for filtration sectors (but not only), which completes the already broad family of differential, visual and electrical indicators. Studied for the punctual, precise and accurate control of the clogging condition of filtering elements, the product couples the extreme compactness (its sizes are less than half than analogue products’), the compatibility with aeriform fluids (not only oils) and the complete separation between clean and contaminated fluid.
Some technical specifications:
– an analogue 4-20 mA output, starting from 25% of the full-scale value;
– full-scale belonging to the 1-10 bar range;
– two digital PNP outputs, freely programmable both in the value and in the electric state (NC or NO);
– Freely programmable activation and hysteresis time of digital outputs;
– freely programmable activation time of the analogue output;
– Maximum working pressure 350 – 450 bars, depending on the process connection typology;
– Integrated temperature sensor for compensation, hysteresis and thermal block (freely programmable);
– Electric connection with M12 connector, 5 pins;
– Brass or AISI 316 steel body.
Special versions are available upon demand for this indicator, too, with different materials and/or electrical connections. Besides, it is also implementable in the certified Atex version, for potentially explosive environments.
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