Powelectrics Are Celebrating Our 30th Anniversary!
Yes! October marks 30 years since Powelectrics Ltd was formed! We are celebrating our three decades of evolution from respected sensor distributor to an end-to end IIOT solution provider, supplying proprietary m2m hardware and software and interfacing with a wide range of third party clouds and kit.
Powelectrics was founded as a sensor distributor into factory automation and process control, named after its founder, Henry Powell.
Current MD, Dave Oakes has been connected to Powelectrics from the outset. Dave’s Dad, Brian Oakes and Henry Powell had collaborated within the sensor and instrumentation industry for years prior to Powelectrics formation. Brian’s business, Oakes & Co, became Northern England agent for Powelectrics, representing them and others within the world of instrumentation and telemetry.
Dave helped his Dad whilst he was studying and focused on instrumentation within his Physics degree, joining Oakes & Co on graduation. (Dave and Brian 1992)
He realised the huge potential for remote monitoring and championed the telemetry side of the business, initially in the form of radio telemetry, supplying primarily into the UK water industry.
Always an innovator, with a strong vision for how connected sensors could optimise processes, Dave sold his first GSM-enabled telemetry device, the In4MA, in 1999!
Oakes & Co’s first internet-connected telemetry formed part of a weather station project on Mount Snowden, as far back as 2000!
By now, the range of ‘connected sensors’ applications was evolving rapidly and the synergy between Powelectrics’ sensor expertise and Oakes & Co saw the two businesses join forces in 2001.
Dave Oakes became Technical and Sales Director and set about realising his vision of Powelectrics as a conduit between the world of sensors and the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).
Dave instigated and managed the transition of Powelectrics from distributor to manufacturer of our award-winning telemetry devices, with the first Metron sold in 2005 and our own MetronView cloud launched in 2011.
Since then, Metron devices have undergone continuous development. Our current Metron4 range of GSM/GPRS IoT devices deliver truly innovative Industry 4.0 hardware. They support 2G & 4G (LTE-M & NB1) for global deployment and in readiness for the 2G sunset. and offer four 4 analogue inputs, expansion cards for pulse counting and RS232 and options to develop RS485 & CANBUS interfaces. With solar, battery & external power options, IP67 enclosure & operational temperatures – 25 to +65°C, Powelectrics hardware delivers reliable and affordable sensor data & alerts for many global applications!
MetronView is Powelectrics standalone cloud with customisable dashboards, reporting and alerts, currently processing millions of readings every day. MetronView is able to ingest data from Powelectrics Metrons and also third party devices, that may use different communications technology, such as Sigfox.
A common API allows simple integration to software like Navision, SAP, SCADA and platforms like IBM Watson, Microsoft Azure and AWS.
We can even integrate data into Excel, so you can manipulate your data, applying formulas, macros and more, without the need to download data from the platform. This is a great way to understand your data, so that dashboards can then be developed to suit your specific application.
MetronView has benefitted from continuous improvement in response to evolving customer needs. The next version, available Q4 will further improve speed, navigation & aesthetics and make it simpler to manage multiple devices and interact with third party devices and data sources.
Over the years, more than 100,000 cellular-capable IoT devices have been manufactured and supplied by Powelectrics! Data on level, flow, temperature, pressure, vibration, humidity and more … for condition-monitoring or strategic management … available on any web-enabled device, wherever you are located.
Our IIoT solutions are found in a broad range of industries including chemical and cryogas, pharmaceutical, fuels and Adblue, waste and recycling, agriculture and environment, utilities and pumping, rail, construction and security. They are used to lower operational costs, introduce new revenue streams and to protect people, property and processes.
Dave told us “I am so proud to have known Powelectrics throughout its existence and to have been part of it for so long.”
“Like all businesses we have experienced varied fortunes. We have been extremely fortunate that Covid-19, whilst presenting operational challenges, has encouraged many more organisations to realise the benefits of remote monitoring, connected sensors and the Internet of Things. In addition to the well-documented cost benefits, connected sensors offer the bonus of reduced physical travel, face to face operations and handling of kit.”
“Thank you to the wonderful Powelectrics team for their enthusiasm and hard work during this most unusual year. Its disappointing that we can’t get together for a huge party just now … but we will as soon as we can!”
“Thank you also to our amazing customers and suppliers. You have kept us going and we couldn’t exist without you!”
“So, here’s to the future! R&D has been ongoing throughout Coronavirus. As well as the new MetronView, we’re developing industry-specific IIoT digital transformation solutions with a number of specialist partners. Our collaborations also continue with Keele University as part of their cutting-edge Smart Energy Network Demonstrator and Birmingham University, focused on self-powered sensor networks”
Our web site is packed with product and industry specific pages, as well as application stories. Just click here or use the news tab at the top of the page.
We’d love to hear from you!