Long-term collaboration bears fruit in the enclosure world where EMKA announce their newly designed handle with changeable lock inserts for Italian control cabinet manufacturer MPGAMMA who rely on a mixture of tradition and innovation. This world ranked manufacturer of stainless steel enclosures decided that it was time to significantly modernise the design of its portfolio. The comprehensive project also included developing a new locking system for their control cabinets and housings. In addition, the compression latches used until now were replaced by specially designed lifthandles. To develop the new system, the engineers at MPGAMMA relied on EMKA’s expertise in a relationship developed over many years.
The Italian company MPGAMMA has been designing and producing stainless steel cabinets and housings for electronic control systems for almost 25 years, over which period because of its expertise in stainless steel design, they have held a strong position in the industry since its foundation and now distributes its products internationally. In addition to its standard portfolio, the company also responds to customer requests, to the point that 70% of its personalised products are developed in collaboration with its customers.
MPGAMMA’s customers span: food & beverages, chemicals & petrochemicals, pharmaceuticals and cosmetics, marine, as well as railways and telecommunications. In these areas a high standard of hygiene is an essential requirement. That is why they use AISI 304L and AISI 316L stainless steel which is hygienic and corrosion-resistant. Furthermore, the products must comply with various specifications for international distribution – to meet these systems, the company works with a quality management system according to DIN EN ISO 9001:2015. Besides this certification by DNV-GL Italy, all products have also been tested and approved by TÜV Süd (German Technical Inspection Association) and UL. Furthermore, the IP66, IP67, and IP69K/IK10 degrees of protection are guaranteed.
Future proofing was an important consideration in terms of appearance and function, so a comprehensive project was launched to redesign the products. The locking system of these housings was a critical element since up to now, the Italians had used compression latches with multiple interlocking points. However, the designers at MPGAMMA really wanted to replace this with a system of new generation lifthandles to open the cabinets faster and provide a better feel without sacrificing anything in terms of security.
As a long-term essential components partner EMKA has already been working successfully since the 2000s. “At that time, MPGAMMA was looking for a supplier with high stock levels and exceptional quality standards. That was the start of our long-term cooperation,” explains Alessandro-Donelasci, Managing Director of EMKA Italy.
In the first step, EMKA modified the model to the 25×150 and 25×68/14/68 cut outs. “This step presented a significant challenge to our team. First, all internal parts had to be identical to the standard model. Second, the new fastening points had to be located within the new cut out,” explains Roman Jung, the design engineer in the mechanical project development department at EMKA. In order to comply with these specifications, the gear wheel and the dish were changed to allow the handle to be installed using a new fastening plate and four screw-on domes.
In redesigning its own product range however, MPGAMMA also had a design-related adaptation of the handle solution in mind. This included shortening the handles at the top, extending the handles at the bottom and adapting the dish’s design. These changes were necessary to integrate a new slider cap into the handle. These slider caps are stamped at EMKA and subsequently clipped onto the dish, then secured by a clip.
This was a very successful co-operation as explained by Paolo Corvi from MPGAMMA – “The cooperation with EMKA on this project was again successful and straightforward,” he explained. “The experts from Germany responded to all our requests and could perfectly adapt the handles to the cut outs of the control cabinets and housings.” After the project was completed, MPGAMMA signed a supply contract with a term of at least five years.
