WEG Africa has become the first OEM to produce medium voltage (MV) softstarters in South Africa, reducing lead times for customers and supporting the drive for local manufacture.
The WEG SSW7000 units are produced at WEG Africa’s Robertsham facility south of Johannesburg to the high quality standards for which the company is well known. According to Pervin Gurie, Director of the Digital & Systems Division at WEG Africa, the popular SSW7000 range is well-regarded by the market. These softstarters, which are extensively used in pump and fan applications in Africa’s mining sector, have now also become more cost effective.
“As the demand for our MV softstarters has grown in recent years, we recognised that customers could benefit considerably from having these products manufactured locally,” says Gurie. “The immediate benefit is that we can almost halve the lead time from 20 to 24 weeks to 10 weeks, by removing the need for long distance shipping from WEG’s Brazil facilities.”
MV softstarters
He notes that the strategic value of softstarters has come to the fore as users look for ways to address the rising cost of electricity, as well as to protect their electric motors and extend their operational lifecycle. Softstarters allow a gentle ramp up of power as electric motors are started, reducing the peak energy demand during startup. Motors starting with a conventional direct-on-line (DOL) starting will draw up to 700% more than its rated current, while a softstarter can reduce this to just 300%.
