Switchboards : always more added-value

It is a fact, in the electrical construction sector, a company has no choice but to develop skills to protect its own markets and to avoid falling into a dangerous competitive situation. Meeting with Michel Kajdan, Development Director at Peintamelec  (France).

Specialized integrator, Peintamelec makes the assembly and the wiring of electrical panels and switchboards. With 400 employees spread over 7 sites in France and Romania, the group realizes contracts of electrical construction and offers more widely services for industrialization of products, industrial computing, automated handling, integration of energy plants… “We are a company speciliazed in integration, says Michel Kadjan, Development Director at Peintamelec, we have understood a long time ago that making simple switchboards without added value is within the reach of low-cost suppliers. That’s why we decided to  focus on specialized work involving a maximum of technicality.”

High added-value

Peintamelec realizes for example the integration with high density of electrical components inside electrical panels. The group answers to requests for tenders for electrical installations requiring anti-seismic behaviour, or when there are high thermal or environmental constraints. The engineering department also handles projects with high constraints in terms of electromagnetic compatibility. Not to mention the ability to program some equipments in the workshop. “Generally speaking, we are willing to answer specifications with high technical constraints! For this, we invest in tools to facilitate the design and the dialogue with the customer. For example, our 3D CAD software gives us the opportunity to present numerical models of wire routing in 3 dimensions. Also, our customers are asking us more and more often to use design tools which are compatible with their own internal digital tools.”

Which choices in terms of devices?

“On international contracts, our customers leave us less and less often the choice of the devices to be integrated into the switchboards. It is clear that we are not influencers or specifiers for the standard electrical devices.”

Towards a profession more and more specialized

Peintamelec has wiremen specialized for some specific markets: “The more constraints there are, the more technicality  is required, which enables us to protect our business! This profession of electrical installations integrator takes a very “mechanical” turn, especially when dealing with embedded equipments, unlike the traditional electrical distribution for which it is only a question of sheet metal.”

The specialization also requires knowing the whole scope of relevant standards. “By entrusting us with specific achievements, the client transfers to us much of the responsibility for following standards evolutions.”

The manufacturing of switchboards and the wiring of devices remains for Peintamelec a very manual job in which each time saving is obviously welcome… “But in this field we do not see significant changes. However, we plan to consider the preparation of wiring upstream of cabling. This may be on this post that we can become more effective, in connection with a change in the way we work …”