Many say that we are currently in a recession, others say not yet but one is due to hit soon. Either way we are all dealing with rising prices, longer lead times and shortages in available equipment. At NPE, we are here to help recession-proof your business.

Here's how we can help!

* Used, reconditioned equipment is at least 40%-60% less expensive than buying new.

* Used, reconditioned equipment is always quoted from available inventory so there are no supply chain issues.

* All reconditioned equipment is tested and warranted for up to two years! That's longer the manufacturer warrented it as new!

National Power Equipment specializes in:

Pars for Equipment Maintenance and Repair- We can support you with parts and supplies to keep your breakers, switchgear and medium voltage starters safely maintained and running for years to come. Many of the most problematic parts are available online at Aftermarket Parts Store for Replacement Circuit Breakers or Switchgears (npeinc.com) Many of these parts are available as new and upgraded by NPE (or one of our partners) to eliminate the defect that caused the problem in the first place.

Increase Capacity - As your business grows we can help your switchgear grow with you! From simply supplying a breaker for a future cell or adding and entire unit substation we have the equipment and expertise to help you expand economicly and without down time. Circuit Breakers, Relays, Transformers National Power Equipment (npeinc.com)

Equipment Upgrades - Solid State trip upgrades with reputable companies, such as Utility Relay, are one of our many specialties. Do you need to upgrade the ampacity of a line from say 1200 amp to 2000 or 3000 amp? We have the parts and experience to help there, too! Reconditioned Equipment (npeinc.com).

Rentals and Exchanges - With an inventory of literally thousands of breakers in every configuration, we can help you avoid longer term outages and stay up and running by purchasing upgraded and warranted breakers and equipment and swapping them out with your existing breakers, then return your original back to us for credit for the core. Quick Ship Inventory for Reconditioned Circuit Breakers & Switchgears (npeinc.com).

Technical Support - With decades of hands-on experience, literally 1,000's of breakers on hand for reference and huge online library of technical manuals and renewal parts books. Just give is a call and we will figure it out! Circuit Breakers, Relays, Transformers National Power Equipment (npeinc.com).

As Bob Dylan said, "The times they are a-changin'!" but that doesn't mean change has to be bad. With NPE's inventory, staff and decades of experience, we can all navigate these economic changes and grow.

Give us a call 1-800-647-0815 or send us an email info@npeinc.com and let us know how we can help you.

Remember, at NPE our motto is "The Right Equipment, at the Right Price, Right Now!"

Almost every day we receive an inquiry for switchgear, air and vacuum circuit breakers and related parts because the customer just got notice from the OEM  that their order has been delayed by weeks or even months due to "supply chain issues". These issues have become a fact of life and effect everyone, everyday regardless of industry, right? Wrong!

How NPE Helps Businesses Beat the Switchgear Shortage

When you deal with a company like National Power Equipment (NPE), there are NO supply chain issues! Everything we quote is on the shelf waiting for an order. We generally ship the same day or next day. Custom orders may take a little longer, but still are a fraction of the time versus OEM orders and are a fraction of the cost of new! 

NPE has thousands of used air and vacuum circuit breakers, tons of switchgear and tens of thousands of related parts all in stock. Each order has a money back guarantee and reconditioned equipment has a 1-2 year warranty.

In short, NPE has:

     Equipment is IN STOCK and ready to ship 

     Never had a supply chain issue

     Expert staff that will guide you through finding the proper equipment for your application

     Inventory that is updated daily and searchable online at www.npeinc.com

So give us a call, send us an email or search or inventory online. Find out why our motto at National Power Equipment, Inc. is "The right equipment, at the right price, right now!"

     Modern air and vacuum circuit breakers are an integral part of all industrial and commercial electrical systems. Failure of just one of these breakers can have far reaching ramifications for both production and finances. Preventing these failures is the goal of any good maintenance program and consists of two basic layers:

1. Regular preventative mainteance (PM) programs not only add reliability to your system but can also point out potential problems so they can be proactively dealt with in a cost effective manner. Nobody wants "unscheduled" outages because a component has failed and as a result, damaged other equipment in the process and interrupted production. PM programs can be scheduled around production schedules (holidays, weekends, nights...) and include a basic clean and test work scope in which breakers are cleaned, lubed and tested for insulation and contact resistance, primary or secondary injection of the trip units. Frequency of these schedules is also dependent upon the ambient conditions that the switchgear and breakers are exposed to. There is a big difference between a paper mill and a hospital environment. This work may be able to be performed in the field, but it is best handled in the controlled conditions of a quality shop that specializes in this work.

2. Remanufacture and or retrofit offers significant life extension and reliability of your air and vacuum circuit breakers. It differentiates itself from a PM program in several ways. The primary difference is work scope. A remanufacturing program like NPE's "Class One" program includes a full disassembly and inspection of each individual component, right down to the last spring and washer. Once inspected, the components are cleaned and plated according to the components use. Current carrying parts are silver plated and mechanism parts are generally zinc plated, although there are a few minor exceptions like phosphate plating. Painted parts are stripped to the base metal, primed and painted, the wiring is replaced with fresh SIS wiring customized to the existing prints. Replacement parts are available from our inventory if used and aftermarket parts with little or no delays to the rebuild. Also, now is the time to replace solenoid coils and rewind motors as needed and upgrade low voltage breakers to a modern solid state overcurrent trip system like Utility Relay's AC Pro or AC Pro II. This type of work scope cannot be done in the field and typically involves shipping to a facility like NPE for a 4-6 week turnaround. Any good remanufacturing program will provide you with test reports indicating that the breaker is ready for service and a warranty. NPE is so confident in its rebuild program that it has extended the industry standard one year warranty to two years.

Having an integral part of your infrastructure out of service for four to six weeks can be a major hurdle to overcome for many facilities. Ideally, a spare breaker should be on hand for each application and swapped out as needed for remanufacture and upgrade, but many facilities may not have adequate spares on hand. That is where a stocking distribultor like NPE can be a beneficial partner. NPE has the inventory to either provide spares for your swap out program or we can rebuild breakers out of our inventory and swap them for yours during the change out.

     Still not sure what to do? As someone once said, you always have three choices..."the right choice, the wrong choice and no choice; and the last two are the same thing", of the three options, which do you choose? If you choose the first one, give us a call or drop us an email, we'll be happy to discuss your issues and provide a long or short term solution. Otherwise, we'll probably be hearing from you after choice two or three kicks in!

NPE - The right choice, the right price, right now! 

Traditionally, the used equipment industry and especially the market for used switchgear has been thought of as being counter recessionary. The common wisdom being, customers will spend money to maintain and upgrade old equipment rather than buy new to save money and to avoid the long lead times associated with purchasing and installing new switchgear.

Recent growth in manufacturing and our economy has changed this dynamic and now used switchgear, circuit breakers and parts have seen a surge in sales that looks to continue well into the future. We see the driving forces behind the growth as:

• Increased demand for products pushes manufacturers to restart old production lines and push them to new limits.
• Much of the switchgear that powers these lines are no longer supported by the original manufacturer because of the planned obsolescence. This creates increased demand for used and aftermarket solutions. NPE AFTERMARKET PARTS
• Used and aftermarket solutions are typically 40-60% less expensive than purchasing new equipment, and they are available much faster and generally carry the same or better warranty as new. To add to this, the fact that personnel are already familiar with how this switchgear operates and you have a win-win scenario.
• Increased cash flow from the economic upturn allows for maintenance and upgrades that had been previously deferred.
• Regular maintenance and testing of switchgear and breakers will increase the life span of the equipment by decades. Older technology can be easily upgraded with options like arc flash protection, ground fault and communications. All these factors will reduce down-time and unscheduled outages.
• For Field Service Specialist - servicing switchgear that has been obsoleted by the manufacturer will also serve as an opportunity for companies to provide other equipment and other services that field engineers can alert them to. Having your people in a plant, actively promoting your products is the best advertising you can get. 
• Older switchgear can be repaired and upgraded to meet new demand. Many of the new products are sealed and unable to be repaired. As a result, repairs or upgrades that would cost a few hundred or few thousand dollars, and cannot be performed and users are forced to discard equipment and purchase new replacements for tens of thousands of dollars and potentially long lead times. 
• Many customers are realizing that planned obsolescence will also render new installations of the latest whizz-bang technology obsolete, the same way their current equipment has been treated. Maintaining and upgrading current equipment just makes sense.

The bottom line is that just as a rising tide raises all boats, as the economy grows and thrives, so will the demand for used equipment dealers like National Power Equipment, where our motto is, "The right equipment, at the right price, right now!" Whether you are an end user, in the repair industry or a dealer, we strongly recommend you prepare for double digit growth in 2021 and the years that follow.

The DS line of air circuit breakers has been a tried and tested product line of low voltage air circuit breakers that have been proven to be both versatile and reliable for decades. Originally, it was sold as a Westinghouse product, then the line was later sold to Square D and then Eaton Cutler Hammer.

It is widely understood that all these breakers are interchangeable regardless of label, however the same does not hold true when replacing the switchgear parts. The switchgear cabinets have been manufactured in several locations around the country which resulted in six different lines of cabinets.  Care must be taken to properly identify which style of cabinet is in question to properly identify and acquire interchangeable parts.

The History of the DS Switchgear Line

The first vintage of DS switchgear was manufactured by Westinghouse in East Pittsburgh in 1969 and continued through 1973. This vintage can be identified as having “Shop Order” (SO) numbers that start with “24Y”. The second vintage was also made in East Pittsburgh through 1984 with SO numbers that started in “27Y” and concurrently with “WPA” switchgear made in St. Louis and was designated by a “General Order” (GO) number rather than a shop order number. The East Pittsburgh gear was generally marketed to heavy industrial users and the WPA gear for commercial applications.

Two more vintages came out of the St. Louis plant, designated as vintage III and IV. Vintage III was an attempt to merge the “27Y” product line with the WPA product line and it is usually designated with a prefix of “28Y”. It was a very short production run during 1984 from May through October.

Vintage IV was made in St. Louis form October 1984 through May of 1990. This vintage continued to use the GO number system and also the “28Y” SO numbers. In 1990, production was moved to Asheville, NC and although changes had been made to the design, the “28Y” SO number system was continued.

Finding Replacement Parts for DS Switchgears

If this sounds confusing, you have a lot of company. So how does someone go about finding replacement parts to maintain their DS switchgear? There are a few options:

• If you are fortunate enough to have the original product literature (see below) it will help to some degree.
• If you know the SO number, GO number and production dates it will help narrow the focus, but even within product lines things like bus size and length will change depending on the configuration and rating of the switchgear.
• Because much of it is no longer manufactured new, you will more than likely find yourself relying on a reputable used electrical equipment dealer like NPE.

Cutler Hammer DS and DSL Low Voltage Power Circuit Breaker Renewal Parts -  Manual RP.22B.01.T.E.

Westinghouse Instructions for Low Voltage Power Circuit Breakers Types DS and DSL – Manual  IB 33.-7901G

Instructions for Type DS Metal-Enclosed Low Voltage Power Circuit Breaker Switchgear Assemblies – Manual IB 32-690-E

The fastest and most reliable way to get the right part, at the right price, at the right time will be with photos and measurements using the NPE On the Go with your smartphone. NPE "On the Go" is very easy to use – just open it up and navigate to Switchgear/Switchgear Parts, answer the product driven questions and attach photos that you’ve taken with your mobile device. This RFQ will be sent to the NPE technical staff where it will receive TOP PRIORITY! Of course, you can still contact us with your requests and questions.      

Use NPE "On the Go" Today!

800-647-0815

info@npeinc.com