Posted to News on 20th Apr 2007, 15:54
Pilz celebrates 20 years in the UK
Pilz Automation Technology, the UK daughter company of Pilz GmbH & Co KG, is now twenty years old. Since 1987, the company has grown to become perhaps the UK's leading supplier of products and services for machinery safety.
Twenty years ago the Pilz portfolio essentially consisted of safety relays and control and monitoring relays, but the company's range of products - and services - has expanded enormously, especially in the last ten years. Alongside the more traditional safety relays and control and monitoring relays, there are now configurable modular safety controllers, programmable safety systems, safety-related switches and sensors (such as emergency stop switches, guard switches, light barriers and the SafetyEYE 3D vision-based system), operator displays, and servo motors and drives.
In the early 1990s, Pilz Automation Technology drew on its in-depth knowledge and experience of machinery safety principles and standards to publish the Pilz 'Guide to Machinery Safety'. This rapidly gained a reputation among engineers as the 'must have' book about machinery safety. Five further editions have since been published, and another is due to be available later in 2007.
Pilz was also one of the first companies in the UK to offer machinery safety seminars and training courses. Demand from customers subsequently led to the range of courses being expanded, so now Pilz offers a wide variety of courses relating to machinery safety standards, regulations and products, some of which are accredited by City & Guilds and IOSH (the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health).
While many customers are happy to have their staff trained so that they can undertake projects in-house, others appreciate the support services that Pilz has offered in the UK over the last five years or so. These include project engineering and independent consultancy services.
Four years ago, Pilz Automation Technology found that the business was evolving so fast that a new means of communicating with customers was required. An appropriate website was therefore created and, alongside this, the 'Safety Update' free email newsletter was launched.
Steve Farrow, General Manager, comments: "Nothing stays the same indefinitely, so Pilz Automation Technology will continue to evolve and offer new and innovative products and services to its customers in the UK. We want Pilz to be the first company that people think of when it comes to machinery safety."
To find out more about Pilz Automation Technology, visit the website at www.pilz.co.uk.
