Whatever happened to ITE?

Status
Not open for further replies.
lile001

lile001

Senior Member
Location
Midwest
In the wave of mergers and acquisitions in the last 25 years, who gobbled up ITE circuit breakers and panel boards?
 
Jraef

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
ITE was purchased by Gould in 1976. The purchase by Siemens USA from Gould was 25 years ago (1983) and it has been Siemens ever since. But because of the prestige that the ITE name carried, Siemens continued to use it on circuit breakers up until maybe a few years ago. In fact much of the current literature on products that have been around for a while still says ITE / Siemens on it.

Most of the switchgear that was built under the ITE / Gould name has been completely redesigned over the years so there is little compatibility now, and the old ITE MCC line was completely abandoned when Siemens bought Furnas in 1996, so even that is old news. The old ITE fuse product line was retained by Gould at the Siemens transaction, but eventually became Gould / Shawmut and then merged with Carbone Ferraz to become Ferraz / Shawmut.

The Medium Voltage ITE circuit breakers had not been bought by Gould back in 1976, and that division became a separate stand-alone company called ITE Imperial for a while. They were eventually bought by Brown-Boveri who merged with ASEA to form ABB and are the backbone of the ABB MV circuit breaker product line, although it has been completely redesigned over the years.

Trivia bit: I-T-E (the original logo format) is an acronym. Does anyone (besides me) know what it stands for?
 
Last edited:
mdshunk

mdshunk

Senior Member
Location
Right here.
Jraef said:
Trivia bit: I-T-E (the original logo format) is an acronym. Does anyone (besides me) know what it stands for?
Click to expand...
When I read it on equipment that has a problem, I tell the customer that it stand for "it's the end". Much like I explain that FPE is "Fisher-Price Electric". I guess it really stands for their pioneer development "Inverse Time Element", but that's not nearly as funny as all the other clever things we could probably think up. Their early breakers had a little hydraulic shock absorber inside them for time delay. Pretty neat when you tear apart one of their old breakers.
 
Last edited:
Jraef

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
mdshunk said:
... I guess it really stands for their pioneer development "Inverse Time Element", ... Their early breakers had a little hydraulic shock absorber inside them for time delay. Pretty neat when you tear apart one of their old breakers.
Click to expand...

Bingo, you get the prize. And that original Inverse Time Element is the basis for all circuit breaker Inverse Time-Current Trip Curve sensing elements since then, even if it was later accomplished in ways other than hydraulically (i.e. bimetal strips). Before ITE, a "circuit breaker" was a spring-loaded switch with a fuse element. The 1904 ITE innovation was in not having to replace the fuse element after every trip. More trivia, the company who made them was originally called Cutter Mfg in Philadelphia, but they changed the name to ITE in 1928 because of the wild success of the product.
 
zog

zog

Senior Member
Location
Charlotte, NC
Jraef said:
The Medium Voltage ITE circuit breakers had not been bought by Gould back in 1976, and that division became a separate stand-alone company called ITE Imperial for a while. They were eventually bought by Brown-Boveri who merged with ASEA to form ABB and are the backbone of the ABB MV circuit breaker product line, although it has been completely redesigned over the years.
Click to expand...

Actually ABB also purchased the LV power circuit breaker line (K-line)

I actually stock all of the K-Line and HK parts for both ITE and ABB, including all of the K-line and HK as built drawings that were purchased from ABB.
 
jerm

jerm

Senior Member
Location
Tulsa, Ok
Jraef said:
The 1904 ITE innovation was in not having to replace the fuse element after every trip. More trivia, the company who made them was originally called Cutter Mfg in Philadelphia, but they changed the name to ITE in 1928 because of the wild success of the product.
Click to expand...
How in the world do you know all this? Is it on a web site somewhere? Your knowledge (both here and in another thread I noticed tonight) is impressive!

[edit: added link]
 
Last edited:
Jraef

Jraef

Moderator, OTD
Staff member
Location
San Francisco Bay Area, CA, USA
Occupation
Electrical Engineer
jerm said:
How in the world do you know all this? Is it on a web site somewhere? Your knowledge (both here and in another thread I noticed tonight) is impressive!

[edit: added link]
Click to expand...

My wife calls me a "fountain of useless information".

I work for Siemens now, I had to research it for someone last year when we got challenged that Siemens were "newcomers" in the circuit breaker world (I don't know what "world" they lived in). One of the last of the "old timers" who just retired after 27 years told me the basic story so I knew what to look for. Otherwise, it would have never entered my mind.

The motor stuff I picked up years ago working for a surplus dealer while going to school, then again later when I ran an integrator / contractor business in Seattle working at old lumber mills and rock crushing plants. Can't beat exposure to a wide variety of different stuff for getting a practical education.
 
N

norcal

Senior Member
It was I-T-E Circuit Breaker Company then became I-T-E Imperial Corp, which according to a old I-T-E Speedfax was sold to Gould Inc. in April 1976(ITE Imperial I would guess came from a combo of ITE Circuit Breaker Co. & Imperial Brass, one can still see the ITE & Gould name on old Imperial Eastman tool packages) The industrail controls div went to Telemecanique,electrical fittings (Efcor) was sold to ??? , Low voltage dist.& controls went to Siemens-Allis*, and parts went to Brown Boveri Electric (later ABB)

* Siemens- Allis also owned Circle AW Products (Now part of Cooper B-Line).


How many folks remember seeing "I-T-E Circuit Breaker Co. Walker Div."?
 
C3PO

C3PO

Senior Member
Location
Tennessee
kingpb said:
Telemecanique was bought by Schneider Electric, whom everyone should know also owns Square D.

There's another good string of trivial history with Schneider.
Click to expand...

Schneider Electric also owns Juno Lighting.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top