American switchgear leader places DEIF controller in the heart of its customised solutions

Reliable and long-term solution

To secure its long-term success in customized switchgear solutions, SAI engineers needed a reliable, go-to controller that did not need specialized programming when it wasn’t required. They also needed to avoid creating a steep learning curve every time a controller was installed. That’s where DEIF came in.

“SAI pursues mostly critical power that must be on all the time, with no interruptions,” says Brad Bell, president and CEO of SAI. “We needed something reliable and available to meet all of our application needs using one device. DEIF is what made the big difference in the AGC-4 controller.”

Bell explains that one of the benefits of having a DEIF controller versus a proprietary design is “that it is hardened, meaning it’s been designed and it’s been tested, so we don’t have to worry about problems in the field that we didn’t predict,” he says. Bells explains that by choosing DEIF, it allowed for “tremendous cost savings and avoids the lengthy start-up process” that typically comes from designing a controller. Bell says proudly that SAI and DEIF have worked together for nearly a decade, but the choice of DEIF came only after extensive research and testing of other control systems.

Bell says he tells nearly every prospect or customer about why the company has taken the path away from PLCs. “I believe in my engineering department, but I’d rather have a product in the field that has been tested and works over and over. Development would mean thinking about and planning for every scenario and every failure, and then create a way around it. DEIF’s controller is my sales tool to show people why the relationship between DEIF and SAI works so well.

“The other advantage is the local support and global support that DEIF offers,” Bell says. “When it comes to the engineering support where we need help in some variation in the software, we can work with DEIF to make a slight change to fit the application if needed. That approach is very unique in this business, where someone would take their own controller and make it work to fit your application.”