5 mins with Brian Preston, Global Business Manager – Elevator, CP Automation.
Can you tell us about your business – when it was formed and what you do?
CP Automation (CPA) have been supplying products to the lift industry for over 20 years now. We specialise in all aspects relating to efficient, reliable power delivery and control of a lift, whether that be with Magnetek, Yaskawa or Nidec AC inverters, regeneration solutions, ARDs / secondary supplies, resistors or even power metering and power quality/consumption assessment and solutions.
How many times have you exhibited at the Lift & Escalator Symposium?
I have personally enjoyed attending the Symposium since 2017 and first exhibited as Magnetek when an opportunity arose in 2018. When the Symposium returned again after the Pandemic in 2022, I didn’t give a second thought to attending and exhibiting again, this time as CP Automation.
Why is the event important for you to attend?
The Symposium provides a unique opportunity to learn more about some of the challenges the industry is facing and also where the industry is heading in future - which is invaluable information for suppliers like us. In addition, as our day to day lives get ever busier, it is always great to have these two days to catch up with colleagues from the industry during the breaks and evenings.
What key themes are you seeing with customers this year?
We are seeing a significant increase in enquiries for our ARD and secondary supply solutions for firefighting and evacuation lifts. We have supplied UPS solutions for many years now but since the introduction of the BS9991:2024 and EN81-76 standards there has been an incremental demand for compliant solutions.
In addition, as the price of electricity continues to increase and building owners demand energy efficient buildings , we are also seeing more and more requests for regeneration solutions. We can offer a range of different options, depending on the requirements of the application. Whether that be a simple solution to redistribute regenerated energy throughout the user’s building or our active front end solution which, in addition to regenerating energy, will also boost the incoming voltage to control high voltage motors such as those found in Otis Gen2 MRL packages.
What can delegates expect to see on your stand?
This year will see the introduction of our new CPA700 inverter which will be our first drive development under the CPA umbrella as a result of our partnership with Yaskawa. On the stand we will be demonstrating some of the predictive maintenance and remote access features that will streamline the way we provide technical support to our customers today. We will also show our new CPFA and CPFE regeneration solutions, along with case studies confirming the benefits of using them. We will also have some of our range of ARD (secondary supply) solutions on display and will be demonstrating some of the local and remote capability for monitoring the status of the UPS/battery life etc.
What would you say to someone who has not attended before?
Come with an open mind! I find something of interest in all the papers that are presented, even if at first glance I wouldn’t expect them to be relevant to our particular sector of the industry.
Visit CPA’s website HERE.
Click here to watch our video interview with Nick Price, Team Leader at CPA.