Following the recent successful launch of the ALPHA Drive Micro and the ALPHA Drive Plus range of Variable Speed Drives, leading supplier Bearings International (BI) is excited to announce the rebranding of its BAUER range of electric motors to ALPHA.

The growth of BI’s market share in electric motors is one of the major strategic initiatives it undertook in 2019, culminating in the recent announcement of its partnership with ABB to include high-efficiency IE3 electric motors.

The advantages of the partnership with ABB include dealing with a local supplier versus direct imports and the availability of quick technical back-up and support. BI has extended its motor range in size, with a 400 V and 525 V offering, allowing it to be able to supply projects in the mining industry.

ABB, in turn, will be able to leverage from BI’s extensive 42-branch network across South Africa, covering all the major mining and industrial areas where BI has a major footprint. The availability of IE3 high-efficiency motors from ABB will be especially welcomed by these sectors, where cost-effectiveness and total cost of ownership are key in an increasingly difficult trading environment.

“With our premium Tier 1 brand now being ABB, we have decided to consolidate our Tier 2 electrical products into one brand name, namely ALPHA. Therefore the BAUER electric motors will be changing to ALPHA from January,” reports BI product manager Andries Barnard.

The part numbers, colour, quality and pricing will all remain the same. The only change will be on the nameplate of the motor itself from BAUER to ALPHA. “Our ambition is to clearly align the brands of our electrical products, compared to our power and transmission products, with these two clear brands,” notes Barnard.

BI has a wide range of aluminium frame electric motors and aluminium housing three-phase asynchronous motors, all with the latest design and selected quality materials that conform to the IEC standard.

The MA range of BAUER motors perform extremely well in even the toughest environments. This range has been designed to give reliable performance, and is also easy to maintain. With a 0.18 kW to 7.5 kW output, these motors are lightweight and have low noise emission.