UAE Review

Eaton confident of doing well this year

Eaton offers a range of products and services

Power management firm Eaton says despite challenging market conditions, the company continued to grow in the Middle East in 2015.

“We had a positive 2015, and for 2016 we have a strongly focused strategy that ensures we leverage the expertise and solutions we provide across the commercial construction segment,” said Frank Ackland, general manager, Eaton Middle East.

Eaton has increased its footprint in the Middle East significantly over the past few years with the acquisition of Cooper Industries in 2012 and the opening of its new regional headquarters as well as a manufacturing plant in Dubai.

Eaton assembles low- and medium-voltage switchboards and control panels at the Dubai Techno Park facility. This includes key processes such as design, assembly, supply and commissioning of low- and medium-voltage switchboards and control panels.

In addition, it recently opened a new component assembly centre (CAC) in Dubai, aligned with its strategy to reduce lead time and improve customer intimacy.

The CAC is expected to reduce product lead time to customers by eight weeks; it upgrades and enhances the capacity of Eaton products to market (up to 400 breakers per month) and enables operating systems to include test data management (TDM).

 

PRODUCTS

With more than 10,000 patents, Eaton is focused on developing innovative technologies to solve customers’ toughest power management challenges.

This year the company plans to launch the Power Xpert CXH, a high-performance, low-voltage motor control designed for critical power applications.

The construction of the Power Xpert CXH MCC is modular in nature, according to Ackland. It is built custom to application parameters and has a broad feature-set that can be tailored to meet reliability and safety requirements.

The CXH is designed for added flexibility. The system can be placed in the middle of a switch room, either as a ‘single line of structures’ giving all around access to panels and cabling, or flush against a wall (a 10 cm clearance is required for ventilation).

Ackland: leveraging expertise and solutions for growth

Ackland: leveraging expertise and solutions for growth

Last year Eaton became the first manufacturer of uninterruptible power supplies (UPS) to deliver a complete back up power solution that uses in-house manufactured supercapacitors instead of batteries.

The power management company’s new supercapacitors, when combined with an Eaton UPS, provide a convenient and affordable alternative in applications where only short-term power protection is required or battery-backed solutions cannot be used.

Eaton’s new supercapacitors offer a wide range of benefits compared to traditional batteries. They are much lighter, have working lives of up to 20 years at 25ºC, require no maintenance and, as they produce almost no heat, their cooling requirements are minimal. The supercapacitors are also ideal for applications where harsh operating conditions and high ambient temperatures mean that the use of batteries is not feasible.

Eaton also introduced a Synflex 33CH-08 high collapse-resistant thermoplastic hose. Designed for subsea oil and gas applications, the new hose features a liner tube made of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF), which helps handle fluids with higher concentrations of acid and lowers permeability with methanol and other similar fluids. Typical applications for the 33CH-08 include, for instance, hydraulic flying leads, Installation/Intervention Work Over Control (IWOC) umbilical hoses, high flow rate applications and methanol injection.

Other new launches included CGLine+ a user-friendly monitoring system for emergency lighting aimed at eradicating the cost and time pressures associated with manual maintenance checks in commercial buildings.

Each CGLine+ controller supports the monitoring of up to 800 luminaires. Internet connectivity allows the interconnection of controllers to allow advanced monitoring and automatic testing of up to 25,000 luminaires from a single control point. Open system interfacing to building management systems is also supported.

The system ensures that faults are detected and logged in real time so that steps can be taken to keep them in safe working order. As a result, emergency lighting can be relied upon to support safe evacuation from a building in the event of a fire alert or other emergency.

 

EVOLUTION AND AIMS

Founded in 1900 in the US, the company has evolved through acquisition and intelligent market decisions to become the power management expert it is today. Eaton has been operating in the Middle East for more than four decades, contributing to the development of the region’s infrastructure with power management solutions that include legacy brands Westinghouse, Bill, MEM, Cutler-Hammer, Powerware and Moeller.

In November 2013, Eaton opened its regional headquarters at Techno Park in Dubai’s Jebel Ali Free Zone. The company today employs more than 300 people in 15 offices across the Middle East, with manufacturing and sales offices in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the UAE, Muscat (Oman), Cairo (Egypt), Dammam and Riyadh (Saudi Arabia), Doha (Qatar), Manama (Bahrain), Kuwait, Amman (Jordan) and Beirut (Lebanon).

With manufacturing facilities in Dubai and Dammam, Eaton also works with its global specialists in order to provide the most technologically advanced solutions to customers across the region, with on-the-ground experts to offer support on additional requirements and post-installation expertise.

Eaton has a number of plans for expansion and growth this year. These aim to provide a greater local offering to customers as well as further cement the company’s position as a leading player in the power management industry across the region.

“We continue to see the UAE and Qatar as key markets for commercial construction this year but despite challenges, Saudi Arabia, inevitably, will remain a focus and Kuwait will increase its importance with some big projects in the pipeline,” Ackland added.