On 5 March RET Automation Controls celebrated its 25th anniversary. Founded in 1984, the company was the vision of Rodney Topham who identified the expanding need for, and importance of, sensors in the production environment. “This was the time when PLCs were becoming very popular on the factory floor and the need for reliable input data escalated,” says Topham.
The management and staff of RET photographed at the celebration
RET has since not deviated from the sensor market, specialising in products for both factory and process automation.
Since the incorporation, RET has represented Banner Engineering in southern Africa. Banner is a world leader in the design and manufacture of photoelectric, vision and ultrasonic sensors, machine safety products, indicator lights and more recently wireless products. Clients requiring to inspect, measure, indicate or count, rely on Banner’s more than 20 000 products to find the right one for the application.
In 1990 RET became the sole distributor for Turck of Germany. Turck built its business around the inductive proximity switch, a technology it helped to invent. With continuous research and development, Turck has over the years been able to vastly improve the performance and sensing ranges of proximity switches. It also offers an extensive range of equipment for the process industry, including products for flow measurement, temperature measurement and remote I/O. Turck is also active in the area of bus communication and offer products for use on most bus systems.
1997 saw RET enter into an agreement with Kübler of Germany for the marketing and support of its products in South Africa. Kübler specialises in rotary encoders, linear measurement, counters and indicators.
Over the years RET has nurtured a distribution and sales network covering all of South Africa and the neighbouring territories. Its distributors have been hand picked to ensure technical expertise and the ability to recommend the ideal product for the application. On-going training is given to sales engineers, both by RET and its principals to ensure that the salesforce is kept abreast of the latest technologies and application solutions.
“Our mission is to be able to solve the most challenging of sensing applications on the factory floor,” concludes Topham.
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