ABB’s first-of-its-kind miniature circuit breaker (MCB) has reached its 100-year anniversary of protecting electrical circuits and while evolving to meet the sustainability needs of the future, an official release said.
Transforming lives
MCB’s has transformed our daily lives by ensuring the safety of both commercial and residential buildings, mitigating the risk of unforeseen incidents. Its implementation has not only revolutionized home safety but also extended electrical safety across society as a whole. Applied across all segments, ABB’s MCBs help in protecting particularly vulnerable spaces, such as factories, data centres, homes, commercial spaces, transport infrastructure and more from electrical hazards.
Today, ABB has eight factories globally manufacturing MCBs with more than 100 million poles per year. In India, ABB has been manufacturing these MCBs since 2001 at its Nelamangala factory in Karnataka.
How MCBs work
MCBs detect electrical faults such as over-currents (short circuit & overload). They then disconnect the circuit within 10 milliseconds which is 10 times faster than the blink of an eye. The electrical system can then be quickly and easily reset without the need for it to be replaced. As we transition towards a netzero future, it is essential to increase electrification and integrate more diversified, renewable energy sources. This means protection devices such as ABB’s MCBs, have larger electrical loads to manage along with variations in power supply and demand. ABB provides electrical safety to everything from solar panels and heat pumps to electric vehicles and brings additional protection against faults like residual currents, surges, earth fault currents, or arc faults.
100-year old legacy
“We at ABB India are proud to be part of this 100-year old legacy of MCBs enhancing electrical safety in India and around the world. Our future-focused portfolio centres on achieving energy efficiency and transparent, sustainable practices. Our designs are compact, modular, and flexible, enabling buildings to be retrofitted and to integrate renewable energy sources, quickly and safely. These products are ‘Made in India’ at our state-of-the-art manufacturing facility equipped with automation technology for utmost precision and quality. These play a key role in ensuring the safe development of sustainable & modern communities, cities and urban landscapes for our future.” says Kiran Dutt, President Electrification, ABB India.
With different ranges available for varied applications and additional features through auxiliary products, ABB’s MCBs are versatile and adaptable. Nowadays, complete protection, including Miniature Circuit Breakers (MCBs), Residual-current devices (RCD), Art Fault Detection Devices (AFDD), and Surge Protection Device (SPD), is providing increasingly higher performance, lower carbon footprint, and greater connectivity to increase energy efficiency and decarbonization.
Patented in 1924
In 1918, ABB’s forerunner, Brown, Boveri & Cie (BBC), purchased Stotz Kontakt, an electrical supplies company based in Mannheim, Germany. The company’s founder, Hugo Stotz stayed on with BBC and, working with his chief engineer, Heinrich Schachtner, invented the first resettable miniature circuit breaker, a device that was patented in November 1924. By combining thermal and magnetic trips into a single, reusable unit, the MCB was patented in 1924, becoming capable of switching off high currents and becoming resettable, meaning devices didn’t have to be repeatedly replaced.
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Inside photograph shows MCBs being manufactured at ABB’s smart factory at Nelamangala in Karnataka.
