Magnetec Moldova – a team of people from the north of Moldova, who started working in full pandemic, in April 2020. The construction plans of this factory, because it is a factory in all the law, were on the last hundred meters in the month of March 2020, just as lockdowns began worldwide. When there was a crucial moment when the German investors of this factory, and the management team of Moldovans, had to decide whether to abandon the idea and the investment, due to the pandemic, or whether to go ahead with the plan, despite the huge uncertainty. The Moldovans managed to convince the Germans that they would face any uncertainties. And on April 13, they officially started their activity, at a very short and cautious time. The initial plan, to reach a number of 150-180 employees in 12 months, to produce these engineering creations, seemed more and more blurred at that time.
And if we mentioned German investors, we must say from the beginning that Magnetec Moldova was created by the international group Magnetec, headquartered in Germany, and the Moldovan team was directly correlated with the Magnetec factory in Hungary, which has been operating since 1989. The first products, which were manufactured in Moldova, were transferred directly from the Hungarian factory, along with the production concept and related processes. And the first group of hired engineers started learning how to produce them. And just like Elon Musk’s famous story, the Moldovan bosses of this factory – all young men from the north of Moldova – almost slept in the factory, sitting side by side with the engineers, to learn all the processes.
But those efforts in the early months quickly paid off – engineers became more and more independent and became part of a continuous and efficient manufacturing process. And the pandemic has made people around the world reconsider their priorities for what kind of cars they want, with an increasing focus on electric. And electric cars have become important not only through official brand reports, to check that they exist, but also in sales, coming to really matter. And this global change played an unexpected role for the Moldovan team.
Today, more than 18 months later, the Magnetec factory in Bălţi has 309 engineers directly involved in the production of components and a total of 360 employees! So, the initial estimate, which seemed almost impossible, was not only reached, but far exceeded. And as the CEO of the German Magnetec group, Marc Nicolaudius, told us directly, the new goal is for the factory in Moldova to reach 1,000 employees in the next 3 years!
So, the big question that you’ve probably asked yourself at least twice before is what is this Moldovan team producing that has benefited so much from the global changes in demand over the last year and a half? And what’s in superchargers and RCCD Meters?
Well, these key components are a variety of toroidal inductors (or toroidal inductors) and hi-tech core electrical transformers, which make them extremely efficient in modern high-density electrical and electrical components. The largest components, which are produced in Bălţi, reach the wind turbines, which generate electricity.
The smallest of them go to a lot of small chargers. And the most intriguing part for us is that the medium-sized inductors and transformers produced in Bălţi end up being part of the construction of high-capacity superchargers, and more recently in the construction of other fast superchargers! And for an electric supercharger, these high-precision components are really crucial!
Other inductors also come in individual wall box chargers, and the main idea is simple – anywhere you see modern high-capacity power stations nowadays, for electric cars, there is a very good chance that those stations will have some essential components in them produced in Balti, Moldova. Yes, namely Bălţi, because these types of products have migrated with the manufacture, for the most part, to Bălţi within the Magnetec international group.
In addition, the application of toroidal inductors is even wider than electric machines, chargers or wind turbines. There are hundreds of other modern electrical appliances that need such components as the ones we are talking about today, and what is manufactured in Balti, for example, ends up in the construction of several finished products with the Siemens brand, but also in electric meters or in safety boxes in electrical networks.
In the factory in Bălţi, most of the inductors are produced by automated lines, but there are also coils with very specific parameters, which need a part of the skilled manual work of some engineers.
In both cases, however, the entire manufacturing process is a detailed one, with perfect quality control. At the last stage, for example, just before sealing the packaging, a camera photographs the contents of the box and saves the image associated with that batch to preserve the quality of the finished product.
The components, batches, warehouses, everything is coded in a modern monitoring and traceability system, of an efficiency that you would expect only from the top factories in the world.
Paradoxically, but Moldova has become the main growth component of the entire Magnetec group now, or, the Balti factory is focused on components used by electric mobility and devices now sought, also from that sector comes the growth of global demand. So we are already looking for an adjoining building to expand what exists in Moldova.
It is one of those unique historical moments when Moldova, and therefore all of us, can feel that we are no longer just on the side of those who lost the train of progress and murmur grumpily under their noses, but we can dare to feel on the side to the winners, to those who move things forward in the world, thanks to the Germans who invested in Moldova, thanks to this team of people from Balti!
The article and photos were taken from: https://piataauto.md/Stiri/2021/12/Istoria-nestiuta-a-unei-echipe-de-ingineri-din-Moldova-care-produce-componente-pentru-supercharger-ele-Tesla-si-incarcatoare-Apple/
Author: Ilie Toma, Journalist, www.piataauto.md