Who Are We?

Circuit Breaker Industries (CBI-electric: low voltage), located near Johannesburg, South Africa, is a major manufacturer of electrical distribution and protection components for low voltage electrical distribution systems.

The foundations of CBI-electric: low voltage were established in 1949 as a joint venture with the Heinemann Electric Company in Trenton, New Jersey, USA. During 1986 Fuchs Electrical Industries was acquired and merged into a new company called Circuit Breaker Industries Ltd (CBI). CBI-electric: low voltage is a wholly owned company of Reunert Limited. Reunert focuses primarily on the fields of electronic and electrical engineering and is a privately owned company listed on the Johannesburg Stock Exchange.

With an exciting background of South African pioneering achievements, Circuit Breaker Industries has prospered for more than five decades to become a leader in the design and manufacture of circuit breakers for equipment (hydraulic-magnetic), miniature circuit breakers (hydraulic-magnetic), residual current devices (RCD's), moulded case circuit breakers (thermal-magnetic) and metering products for electrical applications in supply authorities / utilities, mining, original equipment manufacturers, industrial sectors and millions of households.

CBI-electric: low voltage are the distributors of Mitsubishi Electric products which cater for a range of industrial applications.

The CBI-electric: low voltage Advantage

Engineering and Product Development

CBI-electric: low voltage is the only African manufacturer of circuit breakers and residual current devices. CBI-electric: low voltage has achieved international recognition for its competence and continues to represent the South African Bureau of Standards on the technical committees of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), thus being instrumental in the development of international electrical safety standards.

From the early 1960s CBI-electric: low voltage began to invest in its own product development, resulting in locally developed sensitive residual current devices, circuit breakers for equipment, miniature circuit breakers and, more recently, moulded case circuit breakers utilising the Hydraulic Magnetic operating principle.

CBI-electric: low voltage has a substantial design and development capability with approximately 4% of the staff being employed in the R&D department. They include highly skilled professional engineers, technologists and technicians, who have won many national design awards over the last two decades.

Manufacturing and Assembly

Situated at the Southern tip of Africa and remote from the technical and industrial hubs of the world, it has always been necessary for CBI-electric: low voltage to be a fully vertically integrated company that manufactures most of the components, sub-assemblies and requisite tooling in-house. The resulting depth of manufacture has afforded CBI-electric: low voltage full control over the quality of its products.
This includes the design and manufacture of specialised tooling for press parts and mouldings, as well as purpose-built automation equipment. All manufacturing facilities are maintained using state-of-the-art technology.

Testing Facilities

International markets around the world have provided CBI-electric: low voltage with new challenges, among the many was the ability to quickly design, develop and test prototype and customised products. This, together with the growing need for a variety of internationally recognised approvals, made it necessary for CBI-electric: low voltage to expand its existing testing and research laboratory.
Today CBI-electric: low voltage boasts a testing facility - the only private testing facility of its kind in the Southern Hemisphere - comprising a control room and one 10kA and one 65kA fully computerised test bays.

Circuit breakers up to 65kA can be tested to local and international standards for overload, endurance, and vibration, thereby reducing the time required to develop a product from inception to completion.

Quality - a part of CBI-electric: low voltage culture

Internationally recognised quality standards ensure that products meet the most demanding requirements. All operations within the company are certified to ISO 9001 and EN 29001.

Annually CBI-electric: low voltage invests substantially in the training of people to ensure that quality systems are maintained and effectively implemented.

All CBI-electric: low voltage products are markbearing and approvals are audited periodically by local and international standards authorities, such as the South African Bureau of Standards (SABS), VDE, UL, CSA, BS, CCEE, AS etc.

The Product Range

CBI-electric: low voltage designs and manufactures circuit breakers for equipment, miniature circuit breakers, moulded case circuit breakers and auxiliary products for the protection of installations and equipment against overload and short circuit. These circuit breakers are suitable for use in residential, industrial, communications, and power distribution applications.
The product range consists of:

• Circuit Breakers for equipment
  With ampere ratings ranging from a fraction of an ampere to thousands of amperes, these circuit breakers are available in industry standard styles. By using the hydraulic-magnetic principle, a large variety of tripping characteristics are available. Customised tripping characteristics can be supplied to suit a particular customer requirement.
• Miniature Circuit Breakers
  Miniature circuit breakers, with ampere ratings ranging from 1A to 100A. By using the hydraulic-magnetic principle, the company is able to offer these products with a large variety of tripping characteristics. Moulded case circuit breakers are offered up to a frame size of 1200A.
• Electronic Residual Current Devices
  Being one of the leaders in this field, the company offers advanced electronic residual current devices (RCD's) for use in residential and industrial applications. These include RCD modules, which can be attached to moulded case circuit breakers.
• Metering
  CBI-electric: low voltage also manufactures state-of-the-art electrical metering products, which include prepayment and flat rate meters, with associated vending products and miniaturised electronic kWh meters (one of the smallest meters in the world), which simply clip into distribution boards.
• CBI-electric: low voltage is the distributor of Mitsubishi automation, motor control and switchgear products for Sub-Saharan Africa. The product range includes programmable logic controllers, variable speed drives, human machine interfaces, servo drives as well as contactors and relays.

Distribution

CBI-electric: low voltage's main manufacturing centre is based at Elandsfontein near Johannesburg, South Africa. Three assembly plants are operated in the Free State Province, 350km south of Johannesburg. The company has a total staff complement of approximately 1300 people.

Four branch offices together with the headoffice serve the South African market.
Additionally, CBI-electric: low voltage has established subsidiaries in the USA to serve the North American market, and in Germany to serve the European market.

Corporate Responsibility

On a broader front, CBI-electric: low voltage sponsors education at secondary and tertiary levels in Technician Training Schemes, Apprentice Training and Commercial Advancement Training Schemes conducted under the umbrella of the CBI-electric: low voltage College in order to provide suitably skilled people for the company's future needs.

The CBI-electric: low voltage Concerned Business Initiative funds various South African projects to educate first time users of electricity and is also involved in small scale entrepreneurial support programmes targeted at previously disadvantaged communities.