For Industrial and Commercial Sized Circuit Breakers

Most manufacturing plants, government and commercial facilities rely on electrical equipment that is no longer supported by the OEM. This planned obsolescence requires you to find a reputable source for remanufactured air or vacuum circuit breakers or aftermarket breaker and switchgear parts that match your equipment.

In most instances, breakers that are manufactured by one OEM are not physically compatible to swap out with another but there is one notable exception – the DS line of air circuit breakers.

Eaton Cutler Hammer, Square D, and Westinghouse Breaker Compatibility

Originally, the DS line of air circuit breakers was manufactured by Westinghouse Electric Company. That product line was then sold to Square D and then later to Eaton and Cutler Hammer. Each company changed labels and upgraded trip units to the latest technology of the day, but other than that the products remained interchangeable. This level of continuity can make DS air circuit breakers interchangeable with the right parts.

Of course, that’s just the beginning of the search. Even with compatibility, you will still need to match model numbers, trip units, controls, and accessories to determine which breakers and parts are a viable replacement for your needs. For that, you will need a knowledgeable dealer like NPE to sort through all the variables.

NPE has shelves lined with hundreds of DS circuit breakers and thousands of used and aftermarket parts and we will be happy to find a cost-effective solution to whatever your issue is. Contact us today or go to m.npeinc.com and let NPE’s online tool guide you through the process and submit your request. 

One of the more interesting aspects of our market is the history of the equipment and how it has changed over the years. While most of those changes were technological, some revolved around the people behind the scenes. One in particular that comes to mind, was a group of design engineers that had left the Westinghouse Corporation and went to Federal Pacific Equipment. While the story has certainly has been passed from mouth to mouth over the years, it does have some evidence to back it up. As told to me, it goes like this:

Back in the era of the Westinghouse DB 25 single position circuit breaker, a group of design engineers left the old bar W and went over to FPE. With their designs fresh in their heads, they used much of it to design the old FPE DMB circuit breaker product line. The similarities between the two are obvious. Westinghouse manufactured the DB 25 and the DB 50, etc. FPE’s new product line was called the DMB 25 and the DMB 50, etc. Both of these manufacturers used similar technology and materials for their parts, for example, pole base insulators and arc chutes but the similarities continued to the point that some of the parts are physically interchangeable! In particular, parts like secondary disconnects, control relays, shunt trips and a few others.

    Westinghouse vs. FPE Shunt Trip                                 Westinghouse vs. FPE Secondary

               If you happen to have this FPE switchgear in your facility and you are having a difficult time locating the parts to maintain it, give us a call at 800-647-0815 or send us an email to info@npeinc.com  and we will show you parts that are much more common to the market (and less expensive) and how they can be used to keep your equipment up and running for many more years of reliable service.

As we say at NPE- that’s what we’re here for!

Spotlighting today in NPE’s PIC is our replacement mechanism cover for the problematic blue-faced LA-600 and LA-1600 circuit breakers. As we all know, this molded blue plastic cover is prone to breakage, cracking and/or other failures and it was later replaced by the gold (yellow zinc plated) steel cover in later versions of this breaker line.

                                                                   Cracked/Broken Plastic Faceplate

Our solution? A hand-made steel cover, painted blue and detailed with our house made labels! Guaranteed not to bend or break with normal use, this one and done solution has become very popular. Simply specify what frame size you need and if the breaker is electrically operated or manually operated and we will ship you a new cover within 24 hours. Quantities are limited so large orders may require additional time, but are well worth the wait.

NPE's Allis Chalmers/Siemens Allis LA-1600 and LA-600 Faceplate Cover New Aftermarket Parts List:

https://www.npeinc.com/la-1600-cover-mo

*OEM part number 18-657-346-537

https://www.npeinc.com/la-1600-cover-eo

*OEM part number 18-657-346-550

https://www.npeinc.com/la-600-cover-mo

*OEM part number 18-657-346-523

https://www.npeinc.com/la-600-cover-eo

*OEM part number 18-657-346-579

*Part numbers used to reference original OEM's for identification purposes only. They are not manufactured, endorsed or warrantied by OEM.

This is just one of the many solutions to day to day issues that NPE can help you with. For more, visit https://www.npeinc.com/aftermarket-parts. If you still don’t see what you are looking for, give us a call and we’ll try to custom engineer a solution for just for you. We make our aftermarket parts better, stronger and get them to you faster! Our motto is, "The right part, at the right price, right now!"

Watch for NPE’s next spotlight in our Product Improvement Center’s series of blogs.

Finding the right part to keep your circuit breakers and switchgear up and running should be as easy as punching the part number into Google or on Amazon, then having a list of suppliers populate, right? Well, if you have the part number, if it’s even still available from the manufacturer and if it is sold individually and not part of a larger assembly that gives you a lot of parts that you don’t need nor want.  Well, in that ideal world, yes, that is all it can take. Of course, then you will have to deal with lead time, which can be weeks or months for a part that is still in production. What if it’s no longer in production or you cannot find the part number? That is what NPE is here for.

The old saying, “time is money and money is time” still holds true. Chances are good that if you need it, your breaker and possibly key elements of production are down. You need the right part, you need it right now, and most likely, NPE has it in stock and it can be shipped right away, without the hassle and also without all the parts in an assembly that you do not need nor want to pay for.  So, what should you do? Contact us.

This is what we need:

• Breaker Model Number
• Brief Description (what it is or what it does)
• Photos
• Part Numbers (they are helpful, if available, but we’ve been doing this so long we can work around that little detail)

How to get it to us:

Email:  info@npeinc.com - simple and easy to remember. 

Mobile website:  m.npeinc.com - this mobile site will walk you through a series of questions to help identify the parts and give you an opportunity to submit photos as well, or even faster, use our Quick Note Ap.

Call us: 1-800-647-0815. We’ll be happy to talk you through your problem and customize a cost-effective solution for you.

That is what we are here for.

We have tens of thousands of parts on hand along with our trained, experienced personnel that can get them to you when you need them.

Common  needed parts are also available online at our aftermarket parts store. Many of them have new and improved designs to ensure that whatever shortcoming the OEM part had, was corrected. You may never have to replace that part again.  Visit this store at https://www.npeinc.com/aftermarket-parts, register and enter the promotional code: GOLD20 at checkout to get 20% off your order.

Try NPE and find out why our motto is “The right part, at the right price, right now!”