Schneider Electric expands Telemecanique PLC distribution

Jack Smith -- Plant Engineering, 8/1/2005

Schneider Electric will supply Telemecanique PLCs and related automation products through its Square D distribution channel, effective July 1. According to Schneider Electric, this decision followed growing customer demand for automation products outside traditional industrial applications.

Bill Snyder, Vice President, Channel Development, for Schneider Electric said that the company will continue to support the 200 or so distributors that serve industrial and OEM customers; and that the authorization to sell Telemecanique automation products through the Square D channel "reflects growing customer demand for the benefits of advanced Telemecanique automation technology in thousands of other applications, such as building automation, telecommunications, pipelines, transportation, warehousing and power distribution stations."

Schneider Electric manufactures and distributes electrical and automation products that bear the Square D and Telemecanique brands, which include Modicon PLCs. Modicon introduced the first commercial PLC in 1968 and was acquired by Schneider Electric in the 1990s. It is now the company's global brand for its entire line of PLC products.

The PLC, first developed in the 1960s to help the automotive industry improve production equipment efficiency, is now found in nearly every industrial machine and process. In the past decade, the PLC has moved beyond the factory floor as hundreds of businesses have sought to automate their equipment. This PLC mainstreaming parallels product development efforts to embed intelligence through microprocessor technology, and to simplify software to make the technology easier to operate and maintain.