With a focus on the distribution of British-manufactured Invertek Drives’ variable frequency drives across Africa, Johannesburg-based iTek Drives has expanded its product range to include resistors and chokes and has recently added motor control panels to its product range.

The company has received an order to build motor control panels for a mine in Uganda, which it will supply together with variable frequency drives and replacement electric motors, allowing a complete refit of the hoist, long-travel and cross‑travel on one of the mine’s cranes.

Noting that the order follows several similar deliveries of control panels to Zimbabwe, for borehole pump and mine pump motors, iTek Drives sales director Ryan Bisnath said that the company is expanding its reach into parts of Africa south of the Sahara.

“Whereas we’ve been shipping drives for fan, pump, compressor and lifting equipment applications for several years, we are now supplying the control panels as well,” said Bisnath.

Clarifying the different terminology, Bisnath explained that the drive for a motor provides it with voltage and current as demanded by the control panel, which is the link between operator and machine. The panel comprises an arrangement of resistors, chokes and other electrical components which, working together with the drive (also known as a variable frequency drive, or inverter), allows fine adjustment of a motor’s speed, direction, acceleration, deceleration and torque. This can improve the efficiency of the application, including reduced energy consumption.

“We source resistors and chokes from reputable manufacturers, so in addition to drives we can also supply the necessary control panel components, or we can supply these without the drive. We can also design and assemble the complete control panel,” Bisnath said.

The company’s control panel assembly is currently sub-contracted to an independent manufacturer but will be undertaken in-house once its workshop has received formal authorisation from Invertek.