1972
First Control Panel
Electromate engineer Carl Hoyt and a small part-time crew built a working duplex lift station panel in an aluminum enclosure, mounted on a hand truck as a sales demonstrator. Pictured with the panel: founder Andy Irvin.
OEM Repeat Panels
Two long-running OEM contracts for cardboard compactor and baler control panels established Electromate’s repeat production capability.
Early 1970s
1976
Electrogage
Pressure switch level controls made lift station panels large and costly. Andy Irvin’s Electrogage, a precision calibrated manometer, made panels smaller and level control more accurate.
Logic Chassis
The Electrogage ran on 24 VAC supplied by the Logic Chassis, a safe control voltage under UL rules. Labeled components and a logical layout let a non-electrician troubleshoot a panel with phone support.
1976
1978
Air Transfer Chassis (ATC 10)
A pneumatic extension of the Logic Chassis.
Bubbler Air Monitoring System (BAMS)
Successor to the ATC 10. The BAMS alternates two small air compressors and alarms if one or both fail.
1980
1983
Zap Trap
Electromate designed and built its own surge arresters to protect VFDs and other sensitive equipment from lightning.
Pump Station Director
A monochrome touchscreen control system with VFDs and advanced PLCs that measured and displayed every key process variable. Electromate’s “Shazam” software selected the most economical operating point, extending equipment life and lowering energy costs.
High cost limited production, but many units remain in service and have long since paid for themselves in energy savings.
1984
Mid-1980s
VFD Panels with Bypass
VFDs were then expensive, large and serviced only by factory engineers. Electromate required a contactor bypass on every VFD panel, so a single switch kept a station running after a drive failure. Float backup for transducers and redundant PLCs added further resilience.
Pump Station Director Junior
A lower-cost version with essential features only. Its PLC-controlled, VFD-driven duplex and triplex design closely matches standard panels today; the market was about two decades from ready.
1986
1988
Lift Station and Booster Station Controllers
Designed from Pump Station Director field feedback to bring automation and energy savings to water and wastewater, but still more system, at a higher cost, than the market then required.
Digi-Gage and Vari-Gage
Vari-Gage Electronic Controller
Electromate acquired the MicroMAC controller line and reengineered it. The Digi-Gage controlled across-the-line starters in three models: 2300 (up to 3 pumps), 2400 (up to 4) and 2600 (up to 6). The Vari-Gage controlled up to 3 pumps on VFDs.
With more than 10,000 active installations, both became water and wastewater standards for simple setup, reliability and field-configurable, hot-swappable replacement.
1989
2017
Electrogage ECO, Digi-Gage Plus and Vari-Gage Plus
Years of development replaced the Electrogage’s mercury sensing with the electronic Electrogage ECO.
The Digi-Gage Plus and Vari-Gage Plus succeed the originals with full color touchscreens and smartphone monitoring.
