At the 2011 Hannover Fair, Phoenix Contact and Eaton signed an agreement to develop and implement motor control and protection systems that combine Phoenix’s Contactron electronic motor starter technology with Eaton’s SmartWire-DT communications interface for intelligent switchgear. They hope to establish SmartWire-DT as a standard and say that the collaboration will result in smaller motor control installations with less wiring.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Phoenix MD Roland Bent (shown above, left, with Tom Gross, chief operating oficer of Eaton`s Electrical sector) explained that the Contactron starters integrate motor switching and protection functions which previously needed to be set up and wired separately using several traditional switchgear devices. “They thereby revolutionise the power wiring in the control cabinet.”

Bent added that the combination with SmartWire-DT technology will also replace the complex parallel cabling traditionally needed for switchgear control and signalling functions with a “genuine lean connectivity system”. It will allow the two companies to “considerably streamline control cabinet installations”.

Richard Boulter, senior vice-president of Eaton’s industrial control division, describes the collaboration with Phoenix as a logical step. “With it, we can offer both safe, efficient products and compelling end-to-end solutions around the world.”

The two companies plan to expand their joint product ranges with further products based on the Contactron and SmartWire-DT technologies.