IEN: Mr Engel, your company offers systems and components for data transmission with fiber optics. What are the advantages of this technology?
Engel: The main advantages of data transmission with fiber optics are extremely high ranges and bandwidths. Apart from that fiber optic technology is characterized by absolute potential separations and high electromagnetic compatibility.
IEN: In which fields are your products mainly used?
Engel: That is difficult to say, because we offer solutions for almost every field. Mechanical engineering, automotive, wind energy, security technology, traffic-control systems and building automation are just some of the examples. Our solutions cover all common data such as contact closure and analogue signals, fieldbus (Profibus, CAN, Interbus etc.), Ethernet, audio and video. Basically, our customers have to ask themselves to what extend our products might be interesting for their application. The products that are not available as standard, are produced specifically according to our customers’ needs.
IEN: How many of your products sold are application or customer specific and how many of them are standard?
Engel: If you take a closer look at the developments of the past few years such as our solutions for explosion proof, the integration of various, optical connection types such as E2000 and BiDi, our industrial, compact splice box FIMP and our new mini media converter e-lightxs , you will see that eks is a solution provider with the capability to be innovative. In a way, we are refining standards. It goes without saying that customers who need standard products, get standard products. The demand for customer or application specific solutions is difficult to quantify.
IEN: Your company’s motto “fiber optics from one source” leads one to assume that selling hardware only makes up a small part of your daily business. Does customer business require a lot of advice?
Engel: That always depends on the application. On the one hand there are customers who know exactly what they want. On the other hand there are sometimes applications without any precise ideas about a solution yet. And this is the point where our service starts: We give advice and offer different approaches to an optimal solution. Furthermore, we offer a great variety of active and passive systems.
IEN: Fiber optic systems are generally said to be more complex in assembly and installation. Does eks normally handle that for their customers?
Engel: Firstly, I would like to point out that, over the past few years, the assembly and installation of fiber optic systems have increasingly been improved and our developments prove that. We ensure that the efforts involved are kept to a minimum and provide the necessary equipment. Assembly and installation is finally done by our partners on site. If our customers have questions or other inquiries, they can of course contact us at any time.
Facts and figures about eks Engel
Founded in: 1931
Employees: 22
Turnover in 2008: 2.8 million Euro
Head office: Wenden, Germany
Main products: active and passive systems and components for data transmission with fiber optics
