Powermite, a member of the Hudaco group, offers a fully comprehensive range of high quality locally-manufactured electrical products for machinery and equipment.
Powermite caters to mobile generators, pumps, welding machines, continuous miners, shuttle cars, tunnel borers and transformers used by the southern Africa’s mining, marine and general engineering sectors.
“Quality and reliability are fundamental to prolonging the lifecycle of products and subsequently optimising uptime and productivity for mines and plants,” states Donovan Marks, marketing director of Powermite, a specialist component, equipment and system supplier to the southern African region for almost five decades. “As our electrical products and components are subjected to stringent operating conditions, we make sure that quality always takes centre stage during manufacturing.”
Powermite’s sister companies, Proof Mining Solutions and Ampco, are responsible for the manufacture of the electrical product range in a state-of-the-art manufacturing facility based on Johannesburg’s West Rand.
“Pooling the talents and resources across both businesses has created the largest plug and socket manufacturer under one roof in Africa,” states Marks. He adds that the combination of the two companies’ strengths and synergies has been a huge success on a number of levels. “One of the benefits is that it has contributed to lowering Powermite’s costs which we then pass on to our customers.”
A tremendous advantage stemming from local manufacture is rapid product and spares availability which Marks points out are vital elements that contribute to maximised production levels. “Adding value to our local manufacturing capabilities is in line with our customer-centric approach and we are able to pass all these benefits on to our customers and end-users to assist them with optimal plant availability, production and ultimately productivity.”
Flame and explosion proof specialist, Proof Mining Solutions, boasts 45 years’ experience in the manufacture of top components, equipment and systems for South African industry. The company’s unique phase-to-phase segregation eliminates the possibility of phase-to phase-faults, preventing costly downtime and serious injury to personnel.
The offering from Proof extends to both surface as well as underground mining applications: the extensive surface mining portfolio includes PLM366 and PLM415/515 plugs and sockets, 11KV 800A tunnel couplers and adaptors for open cast applications, 22kV 400A couplers for draglines, as well as 35kV 400A couplers and adaptors for overhead line skids. An array of plugs, sockets, couplers and adaptors, ranging from 120A 1.1kV to 400A 12kV, is on offer for underground applications.
Further augmenting Proof’s product innovations is the ProAlloy coupler. With a reduction in theft risk as one of the primary objectives, the coupler is manufactured from a non-theft zinc, copper and aluminium combination material and therefore holds no resale value. The coupler is also 33% lighter than its brass counterpart.
From the Ampco stable, plugs and sockets designed for certain underground operations as well as products that focus primarily on industrial applications. These products are suited for mobile generators, pumps, welding machines, factory installations and so on. The design of the Ampco range includes an important safety feature; a one-of-a-kind interlocking design that prevents the end user from removing the plug under load.