GE Industrial Systems gone

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macmikeman

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For any of us who sometimes must purchase GE three phase replacement breakers , these are scary times indeed. Service work can get kinda dicey when you cannot find a replacement for a dead circuit breaker in a couple of hours or a few miles drive to a wholesale house. I think back to all the times I demo'd old GE panels out of storefronts and just threw all the old breakers and cans into a dumpster...... Now we haven't had a GE Supply company around where I live in at least ten years, maybe twenty now....
 
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sameguy

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Master Elec./JW retired
macmikeman said:
For any of us who sometimes must purchase GE three phase replacement breakers , these are scary times indeed. Service work can get kinda dicey when you cannot find a replacement for a dead circuit breaker in a couple of hours or a few miles drive to a wholesale house. I think back to all the times I demo'd old GE panels out of storefronts and just threw all the old breakers and cans into a dumpster...... Now we haven't had a GE Supply company around where I live in at least ten years, maybe twenty now....
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Worked for a guy that had the apprentice cleaning the shop and as I walked by the dumpster, on the cart he was pushing was a big box of FPE bolt ons and other brands. I took the box and put it up in the highest rack in the warehouse. 3weeks later called the shop needed a breaker on service call, boss said ahh we just threw out all the old breakers! Told him where I put them, I bet the rest are still there today!
 
kwired

kwired

Electron manager
Location
NE Nebraska
macmikeman said:
For any of us who sometimes must purchase GE three phase replacement breakers , these are scary times indeed. Service work can get kinda dicey when you cannot find a replacement for a dead circuit breaker in a couple of hours or a few miles drive to a wholesale house. I think back to all the times I demo'd old GE panels out of storefronts and just threw all the old breakers and cans into a dumpster...... Now we haven't had a GE Supply company around where I live in at least ten years, maybe twenty now....
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You also have that situation of it not in your area, there sort of isn't an adjacent area where you might find it.

Do you get next day air service very easily or is two or three day shipping considered pretty fast - regardless of shipping cost?
 
Jraef

Jraef

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macmikeman said:
... Now we haven't had a GE Supply company around where I live in at least ten years, maybe twenty now....
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You realize that when GE sold the supply chain to Sonopar (aka Rexel in the US), they just changed the names of the GESCO stores to Gexpro, right? Gexpro stores are all still GE (brand name) distributors. There is a Gexpro in Honolulu and one in Hilo.

What will happen to all of them now with the ABB thing is another story. People I know at Gexpro and at ABB distributors are nervous because when (not if) the old GE product lines get rolled up under the ABB banner, some distributorships will become redundant and in corporate world, redundancy is not a good thing for employees.

Also, there are a number of GE’s products that were being brand labeled from other manufacturers, not manufactured by GE, such as their VFDs, Soft Starters, IEC controls etc. I have to imagine those brand-label mfrs are nervous about this issue because they will be the first to go since ABB actually makes all of those products.
 
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kwired

kwired

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Location
NE Nebraska
Jraef said:
You realize that when GE sold the supply chain to Sonopar (aka Rexel in the US), they just changed the names of the GESCO stores to Gexpro, right? Gexpro stores are all still GE (brand name) distributors. There is a Gexpro in Honolulu and one in Hilo.

What will happen to all of them now with the ABB thing is another story. People I know at Gexpro and at ABB distributors are nervous because when (not if) the old GE product lines get rolled up under the ABB banner, some distributorships will become redundant and in corporate world, redundancy is not a good thing for employees.

Also, there are a number of GE’s products that were being brand labeled from other manufacturers, not manufactured by GE, such as their VFDs, Soft Starters, IEC controls etc. I have to imagine those brand-label mfrs are nervous about this issue because they will be the first to go since ABB actually makes all of those products.
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One of my supply houses is a GE distributor - or at least was. I mostly only bought replacement components from them never new installation items. Their name isn't tied to GE at all, and they also sell a lot of Siemens equipment.
 
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norcal

Senior Member
All the equipment manufacturers with the exception of Allen-Bradley are foreign now, Eaton, Irish, ABB/GE, Swiss, SQ D, French, & Siemens, German. Really does not change things much if any, just a observation.
 
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Ingenieur

Senior Member
Location
Earth
it is edemic of a larger trend, problem imo
our economy has shifted from making things to paper transactions
stock market
financial instruments
interest
credit cards
currency manipulation
etc
where 5% per yr was good we want that in minutes

others realize durable goods are more stable
about all we held on too was defense related, and even that is eroding
bae
sig sauer
h&k

imo this will not change
the folks controlling the wealth prefer fast profit that does not require actual work
financial, healthcare and services are our future
and government
those are likely 90% of our gdp
 
kingpb

kingpb

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SE USA as far as you can go
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Engineer, Registered
Interesting is that GE had been buying their MV switchgear from Powell through a deal reached back in 2006. They closed their factories then. In Dec 2013 they re-negotiated that deal and agreed to have Powell supply MV switchgear exclusively through 2014 but then could start making it again in 2015 if desired. The deal was over in January 2018; and low and behold they sell the whole thing to ABB.
 
zog

zog

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Location
Charlotte, NC
kingpb said:
Interesting is that GE had been buying their MV switchgear from Powell through a deal reached back in 2006. They closed their factories then. In Dec 2013 they re-negotiated that deal and agreed to have Powell supply MV switchgear exclusively through 2014 but then could start making it again in 2015 if desired. The deal was over in January 2018; and low and behold they sell the whole thing to ABB.
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I heard from a reliable source GE tried to buy that line back from Powell last year but the asking price was very high.
 
ATSman

ATSman

ATSman
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San Francisco Bay Area
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Electrical Engineer/ Electrical Testing & Controls
Jraef said:
You realize that when GE sold the supply chain to Sonopar (aka Rexel in the US), they just changed the names of the GESCO stores to Gexpro, right? Gexpro stores are all still GE (brand name) distributors. There is a Gexpro in Honolulu and one in Hilo.

What will happen to all of them now with the ABB thing is another story. People I know at Gexpro and at ABB distributors are nervous because when (not if) the old GE product lines get rolled up under the ABB banner, some distributorships will become redundant and in corporate world, redundancy is not a good thing for employees.

Also, there are a number of GE’s products that were being brand labeled from other manufacturers, not manufactured by GE, such as their VFDs, Soft Starters, IEC controls etc. I have to imagine those brand-label mfrs are nervous about this issue because they will be the first to go since ABB actually makes all of those products.
Click to expand...

Interesting.....
Yes and you can add transfer switches to that list. Kohler, CAT and a few other manufacturers had licensing agreements to slap their label on GE ATS's but for this product I don't think it will be a problem since I do not believe ABB makes LV transfer switches above 1600A but I could be wrong.
 
ATSman

ATSman

ATSman
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San Francisco Bay Area
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Electrical Engineer/ Electrical Testing & Controls
mbrooke said:
Does this mean GE breakers and switch-gear sold from now on will have the red "ABB" label on them?
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I don't think so. If it goes the way of other buyouts the buyer signs a licensing agreement with the seller to keep the band name on the product. This is in the interest of the buyer because of the reputation that the name implies and has earned thru the years.
I would be surprised if I'm wrong.....then again ABB has built up it's own reputation as well.
 
mbrooke

mbrooke

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United States
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Technician
ATSman said:
I don't think so. If it goes the way of other buyouts the buyer signs a licensing agreement with the seller to keep the band name on the product. This is in the interest of the buyer because of the reputation that the name implies and has earned thru the years.
I would be surprised if I'm wrong.....then again ABB has built up it's own reputation as well.
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So its GE for another 10 years? I hope they keep the current design. I'd abhor to see ABB launch its own product line with GE going the way of FPE, Zinsco, Challenger. I have way to much invested in GE...
 
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