Finder: Relays, timers and DIN-rail energy meters made in Europe

Overview

Finder traces its origin to a step relay for lighting control that Piero Giordanino patented in 1949; he founded the company in 1954, and the company history still presents relays as its core. A 2013 profile in Controls, Drives and Automation described it as one of Europe's largest independent makers of electromechanical relays and timers, fully owned by the Giordanino family, with product development in-house and manufacturing kept in its own European plants rather than outsourced to Asia.

That manufacturing model is still the company's main claim. Finder says more than 70% of its manufacturing, and all of its management, sits at the Almese headquarters in the Susa Valley west of Turin, with further production in Italy, France and Spain. Its range has grown from relays into timers, contactors, monitoring relays, DIN-rail energy meters, home automation and, since 2022, a programmable logic relay built with Arduino.

For metering buyers, Finder is a panel-component supplier first. Its meters sit beside its relays and timers in the same distribution channels, which suits installers and panel builders who standardise on one brand for a distribution board. The meters are documented to the register level, and an open-source charging controller, evcc, ships a ready template for the single-phase 7M.24.

Offering

Energy meters

Finder sells two DIN-rail meter families. The 7E and 7M comparison frames the 7E series as button-operated meters read on site, with LCD or mechanical counters, and the 7M series as configurable meters set up in the field by smartphone. Both offer Modbus RS-485, M-Bus and S0 pulse versions, and MID certification depends on the model.

The 7M launch note of May 2021 sets out the range. The single-phase Type 7M.24 runs from an entry kWh meter with an S0 output to bi-directional, MID-certified versions with Modbus RS-485 (7M.24.8.230.0210) or M-Bus (0310), rated up to 40 A. The three-phase Type 7M.38 is bi-directional and multifunction, rated 80 A, with dual tariffs, infrared and NFC in every version, and comes with two S0 outputs (0112), Modbus RS-485 (0212) or M-Bus (0312). Finder names photovoltaic systems, campsites and EV charging stations among the applications.

Relays, controls and automation

The wider catalogue covers more than 14,000 device types: PCB and plug-in relays, timers, contactors, monitoring and level-control relays, time switches and thermostats. Opta, launched at SPS Nuremberg in November 2022, is a programmable logic relay in Lite, Plus and Advanced versions. For homes, the YESLY gateway links Bluetooth YESLY switches and the BLISS2 thermostat to Wi-Fi, the Finder YOU app and voice assistants. All of it is sold as hardware through distributors and wholesalers.

Technology

Meter communications

The 7M range is configured over NFC with the Finder Toolbox app, which can also read measurements, and the 7M.38 adds an infrared port. Serial versions speak Modbus RTU on RS-485: the published register document for the 7M.24 and 7M.38 lists measurements as input registers read with function code 04, in IEEE-754 Float32 values in V, A, W and Wh, with settings held in holding registers. The 7M.38 ships at Modbus address 33 and 19,200 bit/s. M-Bus versions serve building-level remote reading, and S0 outputs suit pulse counters. None of the 7M types has an Ethernet port, so a networked system reaches them through an RS-485 interface or gateway.

Third parties use those maps directly. The evcc template for the 7M.24 reads it over Modbus RTU, either on a USB RS-485 adapter or through a serial-to-TCP converter, as a grid, solar or charger meter. Finder publishes a single Modbus protocol document for the 7E.64, 7E.68, 7E.78 and 7E.86 meters as well.

Opta

Opta runs on an STMicroelectronics STM32H747XI dual-core processor, according to CNX Software. Arduino's Opta page documents Modbus TCP over Ethernet and Modbus RTU over RS-485, the five IEC 61131-3 languages through the Arduino PLC IDE, an onboard secure element with X.509 support and secure over-the-air firmware updates. The Advanced version adds Wi-Fi and Bluetooth LE. This makes Opta a small local controller that can poll Modbus meters and act on the readings.

Markets

Finder sells across residential, commercial and industrial electrical work through 28 sales subsidiaries and more than 80 distribution partnerships. Its own US subsidiary, Finder Relays, Inc., was set up in 1993 and has worked from a purpose-built building north of Atlanta, Georgia since 2006.

The meters follow the same channel as the relays. Finder's meter selection guide maps single- and two-phase meters to homes and small offices, three-phase meters to commercial and industrial panels, and bidirectional meters to sites with self-generation, storage or EV charging, where import and export have to be counted separately. MID certification gives the meters legal standing for billing and submetering in the European Union, which is where the range is aimed.

Opta reaches a different market. It targets industrial automation, machine builders and building automation, and because it is sold as an Arduino Pro product it also reaches developers who already program Arduino boards, alongside Finder's electrical distribution channel.

Company

FINDER S.p.A. is registered in Turin, with its executive and legal headquarters at Via Drubiaglio 14, Almese, and fully subscribed share capital of €100 million, according to its company page. The company was founded in 1954 by Piero Giordanino. In 2013 Controls, Drives and Automation reported that it remained fully owned and run by his family, with his son Renato Giordanino as President and Elisabetta Giordanino as Technical Director; the company site does not name its current management.

The same 2013 profile described a 31,000 square metre Almese site with a newly added electronics department for printed circuit boards, and further plants at Sanfront near Cuneo, Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in France and Valencia in Spain. Finder's certifications page lists ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 50001, ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27701 management systems, an ISO 14064-1 greenhouse-gas verification for Almese and Sanfront, and a test laboratory accepted under the UL Client Test Data Program and the IECEE CTF Stage 3 scheme.

Finder publishes a sustainability report covering energy use, emissions, workforce and governance, and says more than half of its electricity comes from renewable sources. It does not publish revenue or headcount on its site.