COELPA Sudamericana S.A. will soon celebrate fifty years in the manufacturing of elevator cables. With gradual, uneventful growth, it has become the leader in the field in Latin America. Today, it can proudly say that its products are in elevators throughout the country and in those of major multinationals in Brazil. This year, Spain and the United States joined the company as buyers.
We met with the Biondi family in the spectacular new offices they recently opened next to the main manufacturing plant. Hugo, his husband Liliana, and their two sons Martín and Damián work there every day. They are pillars of the company, working with great enthusiasm, continuing the tradition started 50 years ago by their grandfather Roberto. An efficient staff of employees work in the company in a friendly work environment.
As Damián, the youngest of the Biondi brothers, with whom we toured the company’s plant in Lanús, says: “Anyone who can make elevator cables can make any other type of cable; such is the complexity and meticulousness required.”
That is why COELPLA also manufactures cables for mining, agriculture, household appliances, automobiles, and whatever else is required, as its production structure allows them to develop whatever the industry demands.
Origins
This industrial history began in the 1960s with Roberto Biondi, Hugo’s father, passionate about manufacturing. He started making tooling for the electrical conductor industry in a lathe shop he owned, very close to the current plant. Later, his clients commissioned him to manufacture simple machines for their cable production. In the 1970s, Hugo, who was already working with him, changed the course of this family business and, with his father’s help , began building a complete line for his cable production.
Thus began, slowly and steadily, the evolution of COELPLA, which went through stages of continuous growth, developing, using the raw materials and technology of the time, an endless line of products that continue to evolve today.
It was not until the 1980s that they began manufacturing round command cables. Machines were needed that had not yet been built in the country, so they traveled to Germany, and returned with machinery and accessories to achieve the competitiveness they desired, which has allowed them to become major suppliers to Brazil.
Wire Drawing and Wiring Plant
The factory’s structure has grown in line with demand, and in 2008, a copper drawing plant was added, which gleams in countless coils awaiting processing. For those who do not know what wire drawing is, let us say it is the transformation of metal into wire. The assembly of cables into ropes is the process that follows, which ends in the wiring. The machinery used works robotically; all you have to do is turn it on, and it does the work itself. This has reduced the margin of error and increased efficiency.
Extrusion plant and testing laboratory
Across the street is the PVC injection plant to coat the cables, a process known as extrusion.
From there, the finished ultra-flexible mobile cables for elevators and fixed cables for all industries are produced.
Among the traveling or mobile cables, there is a wide variety of round and flexible types with jute cores, steel cores, selector cables, flat elevator cables, and countless other types of control cables, both standard and custom-made by multinational companies, who carry their manuals so that they can be manufactured exactly what they need.
As Damián, who prefers to focus on manufacturing, unlike Martín, who primarily focuses on marketing and customer relations, explains, “The elevator cable is a special cable that travels and moves. This requires a different process than common copper cable: the copper has to be super-annealed, with 25% stretch, and requires twist-free wiring because it moves up and down constantly. On the outside, a common cable looks similar to a moving cable, but on the inside, they have a different core and construction; the moving cable has to last at least 10 years. The characteristics of each cable depend on the customer’s requirements; they vary according to demand. That is why this is an elevator cable factory, because these require many processes specific to the elevator industry.
A SOUVENIR FROM EXPOELEVADOR IN BRAZIL
However, COELPLA is not just another factory for command cables and special cables. The care taken in its quality control laboratory, following the National IRAM Standards, the European UNE-EN Standards, the International CEI IEC Standards for traveling cables, and ISO seals, is key. 9001:2015, sets us apart from any other cable manufacturer.
“We constantly test every cable that leaves production, destructive testing exceeding 60,000 operations, a real abuse to ensure a reliable and top-quality product installed in TK, Fujitec, Otis, Atlas of Brazil, and other elevators. This type of manufacturing is not easy; not many in the world are willing to do it; Brazil, for example, doesn’t make it and buys it from us.”
The certification body’s testing protocol extends from the beginning to the end of the shipment. It controls the receipt of materials such as copper and plastic. During the wire drawing process, the wire’s elongation, electrical resistance, strand formation, twisting, cross-section to ensure it has the right amount of copper, electrical resistance, and many other details are analyzed.
COELPLA provides an installation manual, which is just as important as the quality of the product and is what determines the success and longevity of the command cables.
Looking forward
This special type of cable, the elevator control cable, requires a lot of space because its internal characteristics and the function it performs make it impossible to stack it for storage. Therefore, the existing 10,000 square meters of plant will soon be expanded to include another 10,000 square meters to build a new facility on the same site. This marks the first 50 years of a company that promises many more years of activity and growth in the industry.
