On 26th April, Fronius UK opened its doors to over 200 visitors who participated in their very own time travel experience as they were transported into a new era of technology. During the biggest and most successful Fronius UK Open House to date, guests had the opportunity to see the latest products and applications across all three Fronius divisions.
The day was filled with product demonstrations featuring the latest cutting-edge technology and included topical seminars from both Fronius and external guest speakers, providing visitors an informative day of industry knowledge. But this was no ordinary Open House. Wanting to inject a bit of fantasy and appeal to people’s imaginative and nostalgic sides, the event was aptly themed “Back to the Future”. There was a BTTF DeLorean for the day, signed by the cast. Guests also had the opportunity to find out more about the company’s history as they were taken back through time to see some of the company’s first ever innovations, such as the Battery Boy charger, Sunrise inverter and a pre-1950 welding machine. All talks and product demonstrations were based on the technology of the “future” – what’s coming up, upgrades, processes, downloads and so on.
The day was also livened up with the transformation of the display area into a busy 1950s Amercian Diner blasting out tunes from the 50s and serving up burgers, hotdogs and fries. After enjoying a spot of lunch, attendees won a variety of Fronius prizes on inverter-cum-fruit machine Lucky Snappy, and posed for photos with the famous Solar Energy mascot, Snappy. And to top it all off, people were entertained by singer, Sally, belting out those famous 50s hits on arrival.
Fronius welcomed forklift fleet owners to discuss the savings potential when using the intelligent “Ri” charging process unique to Fronius. The company guarantees to save money on the energy costs of running a forklift truck fleet – by up to a huge 30%. Its offerings range from the sale of single battery chargers to total system solutions including multiple charging modules and complete charging rooms. Monitoring of the battery charging process can also optimise charging operations and identify battery defects with Fronius’ online visualisation tool, the I-SPoT Viewer.
A talk by European Sales Manager, Norbert Scharinger, discussed the future of what powers the forklift truck and compared the main existing technologies from different types of battery to different fuel cells.
Existing and potential customers were impressed by the range of automated, robotic and manual welding demonstrations which included the highly flexible TPS/i welding system, Fronius’ fastest cladding process to date and the new range of TransPocket welders with multivoltage variant.
Meanwhile, the Solar Energy division had set up a live example battery storage system and displayed how this can be used to charge an electric vehicle at particular times of the day for the optimum usage of solar energy, as well as power other household consumers. Both Loxone and KEBA showed their compatible solutions to combine solar with EV charging and home automation.
“This type of event is invaluable for customers who want to see and try out Fronius products. Seeing is believing when it comes to the savings potential of Fronius charging products.” Ross Adams, Sales Manager UK and Ireland, Perfect Charging.
Fronius would like to thank guests from Loxone, SolarWatt, Struers, Voestalpine Bohler, Hypertherm, KEBA, the British Stainless Steel Association, The Welding Institute, Tesla Motors and the Aluminium Federation.
