ElectroDrives is glad to announce that have concluded the acquisition of the company International Electronics S.A. (IES). The acquisition was the result of exercising the exclusive call option signed in July 2018 to acquire all assets of IES. New combined business will operate under ElectroDrives company name but will maintain both brands ElectroDrives and IES when marketing its products.
International Electronics (IES) was founded in 1985. Since its origin, IES was focused in the design and manufacturing of power electronics equipment for large industrial motors. Their initial business commenced in low voltage (LV) softstarters and variable speed drives (VSD) for Squirrel Cage Induction Motors (SCIM). In 1990, IES stepped into the medium voltage (MV) applications with its first softstarter rated 5kV and 1,000kW for a large steel plant. Soon it became market leader for MV softstarters in Spain.
In 1993 IES started the business for drives for Wound Rotor Induction Motors (WRIM)/Slip Ring Motors. Its initial drive was a Resistance Chopper Drive (RCD) for the exhaust fan of Compostilla, a coal power plant in Spain. After this, IES introduced the Subsynchronous Recovery Drive (SRD) in 1996, its first Slip Energy Recovery Drive (SER Drive) with regenerative energy and a backup RCD for redundancy.
In 1999, an 800kW Full-Size Converter for wind applications was developed, one of the first drives for variable pitch wind turbines. There were more than 350 converters manufactured for the Gamesa/Made AE-52 wind turbines.
In 2000, IES developed its first SER Drive with hypersynchronous speed for a 6,500kW SAG mill application. This first drive, installed in Cadia gold mine in Australia is still under operation 20 years after. The IES SER Drive became a market standard in the mining industry during the last 20 years.
ElectroDrives was founded in 2009. Its main mission was to provide technical support to the SER Drives manufactured by IES so in this way, IES could concentrate the efforts in its main activity of design and manufacture. Soon, it developed its own technology for the Static Var Compensation (SVC), Reactive Power Correction Banks and Harmonics Filters. In 2014, it became the preferred partner for technical support of IES Drive for most of the installed systems and extended its collaboration to the main manufacturers of Liquid Resistor Starters (LRS) worldwide.
The joining of forces, together with the new management, give us a complete perspective in the life cycle of the drive and softstarter systems and will ensure a better customer support for existing installations and new capital projects.
