For the last one and a half years, different switchgear series from the steute “Extreme” range have been undergoing tests in splash water on the North Sea island of Helgoland. The Fraunhofer IFAM (Institute for Manufacturing Technology and Advanced Materials) has a test facility on the island where it investigates in real-life conditions the suitability of materials and components for use in corrosive environments.
At the SPS, steute will be presenting the results of the latest completed tests and also demonstrating the test conditions themselves – including a test rack as used on the quay and various Extreme switching devices which spent one year in splash water, some even in tidal water.
In this way, steute can prove the suitability of its switchgear for genuinely Extreme environments, such as offshore installations, hubs and terminals in ports, aboard ships, or in chemical plants. The test objects were taken from different position switch, foot switch and pull wire switch series.
Dipl.-Ing. Rainer Lumme, “Extreme” Product Manager at steute: “Our Extreme switching devices do of course meet all the relevant standard requirements, such as salt spray tests. But real-life conditions – as the work of IFAM and also our own tests have shown – are far more challenging, due to the changing weather and unpredictable conditions. From our point of view, these outdoor tests are therefore invaluable for the optimisation of our existing ranges and the development of new products. And customers can be sure that our Extreme switching devices achieve long lifetimes, even in extremely corrosive conditions.”
This is why steute has decided to continue the real-life tests. "A test rack with pull wire switches is now on the quay in Helgoland for a second year. And we shall be taking more switches to the North Sea for testing."