Since 1996, Finepoint’s Circuit Breaker Test & Maintenance Training Conference has featured a full day at a circuit breaker manufacturing plant. This year, delegates will tour Pennsylvania Breaker and Pennsylvania Transformer Technology, located in Canonsburg.

Participating manufacturers have been ABB (Greensburg/Mt. Pleasant, Pennsylvania, in 1996, 2000, and 2005), AREVA (Charleroi, Pennsylvania, in 1997, 2001, and 2006), HVB AE Power Systems (Suwanee, Georgia, in 2004), Mitsubishi (Warrendale, Pennsylvania, in 1998 and 2002), and Siemens (Jackson, Mississippi, in 1999 and 2003).

Pennsylvania Breaker LLC (PAB) is the only U.S.-owned manufacturer of high-voltage breakers and has established a 90,000-square-foot design, test, and manufacturing facility located within the 1.2 million square feet of the Pennsylvania Transformer Technology Inc. (PTTI) factory in Canonsburg. Recent renovations include upgrades to the W.E. Kerr High Voltage Test Center and the addition of state-of-the-art production tooling. The PAB facility supports the design, testing, and manufacturing of circuit breakers from 72.5 kV to 550 kV, including interrupters and mechanisms.

The PTTI facility manufactures a total range of types and sizes of single and three-phase power transformers and voltage regulators. A partner of PTTI, PAB was formed to serve U.S. users of high-voltage breakers with products designed to ANSI/IEEE standards for typical U.S. applications (60 Hz, high fault currents, high X/R, long lines) and with U.S.-based expertise and application support.