Developing for a sustainable future

The multinational Gefran group (headquartered in Italy) has specialized in the design and production of sensors, industrial process control systems and automation components over the past fifty years. Flexibility and process quality are of paramount importance. It is not for nothing that as many as 14% of Italian employees are employed in R&D and 6% of total sales are invested in research and development.

Gefran was founded in 1969 and started producing, among other things, control cabinets for machines in the plastics industry. Immediately afterwards - in 1970 - production of the first sensors took place. Right from the beginning there was a clear focus on the customer: what exactly does he want, what does this mean for the required product and how are we going to realize this? A vision that still bears fruit today.

From 1980 onward Gefran also began to focus on the international market. Because the company develops and produces the products itself, there is maximum control over quality which eventually led to success worldwide. Listed in Italy since 1998, the company now has eight production sites and thirteen foreign sales offices, the Benelux site of which is in Belgium. 

Portfolio

The product range of Gefran includes sensors, controllers, indicators, power controllers and automation solutions. The sensor program is the most comprehensive package and includes pressure, melt pressure and temperature sensors as well as position, angle and inclination sensors and sensors for measuring forces and stresses. In addition, Gefran advanced and sustainable solutions for temperature and/or power control of all types of electric heaters.

With these products - as well as solid knowledge about increasing the efficiency and optimizing the energy consumption of production processes, among other things - the company targets Gefran focuses on machine and equipment construction and system integrators on the one hand and the energy industry in the sustainable domain on the other. The number of sectors it serves is now broad, ranging from the plastics and chemical industries to the mobile hydraulics, metal, glass, wood, semiconductor and food industries. With the current era of automation, the focus on sustainability and the possibilities of optimizing processes and predicting maintenance based on big data, the demand for specifically these products is high. 

Application

One of the many applications in which Gefran components are incorporated, are laboratory furnaces. The compact products are used for drying processes (in the context of product moisture), melting metals and alloys and performing various thermal tests, among other things. Advanced control equipment is required to accurately control the temperature for each application. Gefran offers the GRM-H power controller for this purpose that allows efficient temperature management even with complex electrical loads (such as infrared lamps). This is made possible by configurable control modes (ZC, BF, FT, HSC, PA) combined with a stable energy supply to the load. Accurate and continuous monitoring of the process contributes to stable production quality and optimal energy consumption. Finally, the GRM-H is optionally equipped with IO-Link communication for easy integration and provision of process data in the context of predictive maintenance and process optimization. 

Passion

Els Govaerts, in charge of marketing and communications at Gefran Benelux, is convinced that the quality standard of Gefran has been achieved in large part because of the committed and passionate employees. "Despite the size of the company - the group has 700 people - you notice in everyone the will to produce the best solutions for our customers. We therefore produce many customer-specific products and our employees are given every opportunity to develop in relevant areas." She continues: "We also invest 6% of sales in R&D. Among other things, this translates into a solid workforce with hardly any turnover and we don't have any shortages either. Together we look to the future where our innovative capacity and our cooperation with various knowledge and educational institutions will undoubtedly lead to ever new solutions and products that will make the world a little bit better."