FPE Circuit Breakers

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brian john

Senior Member
Location
Kilmarnock, Va
Occupation
Retired after 52 years in the trade.
I am involved in a project that requires reviewing the electrical distribution system in a commercial building. I need REAL information not here say, not myths (and there are tons of these) regarding FPE bolt in circuit breakers. Years ago I was involved in the recall of these circuit breakers but somewhere in moving I have misplaced the FPE company supplied data. These ARE NOT StabLoc circuit breakers, this is not a residential project.
 
brian john said:
I am involved in a project that requires reviewing the electrical distribution system in a commercial building. I need REAL information ~~~~~These ARE NOT StabLoc circuit breakers, this is not a residential project.
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What type of information are you looking for????

Since you're not dealing with the "Stab-loc" line - treat it as any other evaluation IMO. Visual, thermal and electrical inspection of enclosures and busses.... The breakers themselves... It may be hard to get trip-curves for them, (They may have been shredded and burned as the sirens came close ;) ) but I know a shop that has most them.... They do testing and re-building of larger frame breakers for me from time to time....

San Francisco Switchgear Inc. (No web presence...)
[SIZE=-1]540 Barneveld Ave # B[/SIZE]
[SIZE=-1]San Francisco, CA 94124[/SIZE]

[SIZE=-1](415) 522-0762
[/SIZE][SIZE=-1](415) 285-2761

or for parts:

Circuit 99 Inc
1927 Lundy Ave
San Jose, CA , 95131-1847
Phone: 408-943-1499
FAX: 408-943-1731

You may have other resources more local to you????

Add one more....




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When I was involved with the 1980's recall we were supplied with documentation from FPE, with all styles, amperage's and AIC ratings identified as to what was acceptable and what we had to replace. I want to verify the CB;s in this facility are not on the recall list. Many establishments (I believe) missed out on the recall.
 
brian john said:
When I was involved with the 1980's recall we were supplied with documentation from FPE, with all styles, amperage's and AIC ratings identified as to what was acceptable and what we had to replace. I want to verify the CB;s in this facility are not on the recall list. Many establishments (I believe) missed out on the recall.
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ooooo.... cha-ching for you, if you can come up with that list. If I was to guess who'd be the best lead for that list, I'd bet the people at PEARL would know. www.pearl1.org

I was always under the impression that everything FPE that was bolt-on was top-notch. Guess not.
 
This is all I've found so far from Harry Hughes, Assistant Director of Operations and Maintenance, Towson University:

"In 1981 Federal Pacific sent a letter to this University regarding a voluntary recall of their molded case breakers types NEJ, HEJ, NFJ/HFJ, NEG/HEG, NEF and NP. Their New Jersey office sent technicians down to replace over 200 breakers on campus from 40 amps up to 1600 amp types."

That's right in your back yard, Brian, so maybe you can look this guy up?
 
To muddy the waters a bit...I did some work in an office building last year, circa 1985, that was entirely FPE gear from top to bottom. But it wasn't "FPE", it was marked "FPE by Reliance Electric." :confused:

We needed to add many circuit breakers to the panelboards and the modern Cutler Hammer breakers fit perfectly. So I'm guessing this was Westinghouse stuff in disguise? :confused:
 
peter d said:
We needed to add many circuit breakers to the panelboards and the modern Cutler Hammer breakers fit perfectly. So I'm guessing this was Westinghouse stuff in disguise? :confused:
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Probably. There is an aweful lot of gear out there that's patterned after Westinghouse or GE. Challenger bought out Reliance, and for a period of time, Challenger equipment said both Cutler-Hammer and Challenger on it.
 
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Here's something I never heard mention of before. "UV Industries":

Federal Pacific Electric (FPE), which Reliance purchased just months before the 1979 Exxon takeover, turned out to be one of the company's most unfortunate acquisitions. Reliance discovered that FPE had been manufacturing some substandard circuit breakers, its largest line of products, and had deceived Underwriters Laboratory (UL) to get its approval for the critical home and commercial construction markets. As a result, UL withdrew its approval of all FPE circuit breakers, forcing the company to purchase and market others' products. Reliance initiated a costly seven-year, multi-suit litigation against UV Industries Inc., former owners of FPE, which was not concluded until the late 1980s, when Reliance divested the troublesome subsidiary.
 
mdshunk said:
Challenger bought out Reliance, and for a period of time, Challenger equipment said both Cutler-Hammer and Challenger on it.
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Well, that would explain the alphabet soup of names on that gear, as well as the modern day Cutler Hammer compatibility. :)
 
brian john said:
When I was involved with the 1980's recall we were supplied with documentation from FPE, with all styles, amperage's and AIC ratings identified as to what was acceptable and what we had to replace. I want to verify the CB;s in this facility are not on the recall list. Many establishments (I believe) missed out on the recall.
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Drian are these molded case, isulated case or power breakers? There are too many FPE recalls to go through unless you can get me some more info.

I did run across a new issue with Sq-D masterpact

http://www.pearl1.org/downloads/Square-D-Masterpack-NW-Customer-Letter-1.pdf
 
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