When the late, great telecoms engineer Piero Giordanino devised a step relay to control lighting back in the early 1950s, it is doubtful that he could have predicted where his inventiveness would lead. In fact, so deeply engrained in Giordanino’s home land of Italy is the company and its products, that the word ‘Finder’ has entered the vernacular and is often used as a generic term to refer to a step relay.
As the company celebrates its 60-year anniversary, Finder is not simply taking the opportunity to reflect on the successes over the last six decades. The company is using the occasion to mark the start of a new generation—where Finder is known for more than just relays and is a recognised player in the broader residential and commercial electrical components industry, which extends to lighting controls, dimmers, timers, thermostats, and more. This applies not just to the way forward for the company, but also suggests the natural progression of Finder’s ownership. To this day the business is still fully owned and run by the four Giordanino children. Since his death in 2012, Piero’s son Renato has taken the helm as President, while his youngest daughter Elisabetta remains Technical Director.
Investing for the future
As one would expect, Finder’s investment in its production facilities is more than complemented by its range of products. Over the years the company has produced over 10,000 different products and continues to be at the forefront of innovation in its sector, reacting to the needs of its customers.
The depth and breadth of Finder’s product development demonstrates its strategy to expand on its success. From monitoring relays, surge protection devices and panel thermostats to power supplies and energy meters, Finder’s products can be found almost everywhere.
Product developments
Chrono Touch Slide 1C.61
Touch screen programmable room thermostat
Making a significant departure from producing quality relays, Finder has introduced its new room thermostat, the type 1C.61, with adjustment sliders designed to respond to the need for practicality, simplicity and comfort in the control of room temperature. Uniquely innovative, the 1C.61 is the first touch slide capable of combining the simplicity of a touch screen display with exclusive guided programming, with the ease of adjustment of the 24 linear sliders for temperature setting.
The backlit display features large font size and dynamic icons, offering excellent legibility. However, despite the large display and backlight, the advanced electronics of the new 1C.61 cleverly limits the power consumption, extending battery life up to 2 years.
Simple but fully featured: The 1C.61 fully justifies this slogan, as in setup mode, an extensive range of advanced features and functionality can be programmed. For example, you can set the time of day to the nearest 15 minutes; and the day function allows you to program any 1 of 3 modes (Off, Manual, Sliders) for each day of the week. It’s possible to make the display show the temperature of an (optional) external sensor, or even make this the main controlling sensor.
Innovative functions can be set to block changes to the thermostat (under PIN control), protecting all parameters entered including the settings of the sliders. Alternatively, a simple lock against the effect of accidental or malicious touching of the display buttons can be selected. The possibility of calibration to align the display to the perceived temperature is also an option.
Astro Time Switch 12.81
Saves energy wherever you are
Where the need exists to control lighting, temperature or other functions according to daylight hours, Finder’s Astro 12.81 time switch is an innovative, easily programmable time switch, which employs a unique digital program to calculate sunrise and sunset times by simply entering the location’s postcode with a single joystick.
With ever increasing pressures to reduce energy consumption, the Astro will control lighting, heating/cooling and humidity equipment in commercial, residential and industrial applications wherever sunrise and sunset times are critical in determining operational times, or where stipulated by local or national regulatory requirements.
The Astro’s micro-controller stores postcode data from 16 European countries, including the UK, which together with date information allows for the precise calculation of seasonal sunrise and sunset times. The Astro is also programmable using geographical coordinates, settable between 30°S and 64°N; 16°W and 50°E. The Astro will also automatically compensate, should European Summer Time be enabled.
Master Interface: Now with push-in terminations
Building on the success of the screw-termination 39 Series ‘Master Interface’, a new push-in termination is now available. The new product allows for quick and simple connection of solid wires or ferrules by their simple insertion into the terminal. Connection without tools saves time without compromise, as the push-in termination enhances vibration resistance.
The full range is available with choice of electromechanical and solid state versions.
