Wichita Falls, TX, September 22, 2009 – On June 30th, 2009, ABB Low Voltage Products & Systems (LVP&S) announced the launch of the ProLine Panelboard. Recently, the Wichita Falls, TX based team responsible for a successful product launch sat down for an interview on the electrical industry's first current limiting, touch safe, fully coordinated UL 67 Panelboard.

“In the course of doing business with our customers, we really keyed in on the fact that equipment downtime caused by short circuit or overload could not only be damaging to customer equipment but it could also delay time critical operations,” said Chas Harris, Director of Product Management. “This could mean that in data centers and banking, for instance, transactions couldn’t be processed due to servers being down. When applying this scenario to hospitals, it is easy to see how equipment critical to patient treatment may not be available for use at the time it’s needed the most,” he added. Hence, the ProLine Panelboard was developed to address the very costly customer issues of safety andreliability.

The ProLine Panelboard utilizes ABB’s best-in-class miniature circuit breaker technology. Because the development team started with such a great product as a basis for design, the ProLine offers the following features:

• Breakers UL current Limiting
• Fully Coordinated
• Touch Safe
• Pluggable Breaker with Non-Energized, Bolt-On Screw

“One key fact that sets this product apart from typical panelboards is that it’s the only UL67 panelboard on the market that utilizes UL “current limiting” breakers,” says Donnie Brunson, Product Manager of the ProLine Panelboard. “In comparison to typical panelboards, which use slower acting zero crossing breakers, the ProLine Panelboard’s ability to quickly recognize and react to a tripping event is unmatched”.

Kevin Sims, Business Development Manager adds “The ProLine provides selective coordination, which is critical for the reliability of an electrical distribution system. The ABB ProLine Panelboard and its industry-first features will allow only the nearest upstream overcurrent protective device to open for both overloads and all types of short-circuits, leaving the remainder of the system undisturbed and preserving continuity of service.”

“I especially like how we were able to employ the use of resin encased bus bar to reduce the size of our panelboard chassis while creating a touch-safe product” commented Sara James, Marketing Lead for the ProLine product launch. “It surprises me that customers have not demanded a higher quality product from the industry. Breaker technology has advanced by leaps and bounds over the past decades, but traditional panelboard technology has not changed very much until now. I am proud to have been able to bring a better solution to our customers.”

It should be noted that Donnie Brunson and Sara James are both original members of the development team began by previous Product Management Director Dean Latham. Donnie, Sara, and Dean have seen this product go from theory and concept to practical application and full production. For this reason, Donnie could easily recount the months and years of detailed design and rigorous testing that took place throughout the course of this product’s development. “We utilized the best of ABB and its partner organizations to ensure that we had a world-class product to offer at the outset,” says the 18 year veteran of ABB.

In today's business environment, there is a high demand for power reliability and consistency. This is why ABB developed the ProLine Panelboard, a product that provides current limiting branch protection for the applications where reliability matters most. The ProLine Panelboard provides an innovative and high performance approach to branch circuit protection. For those industries and service providers where reliability and 24/7 uptime is critical, the Proline Panelboard with Proline Circuit Breakers is the perfect solution. Safer, more reliable with full coordination are the benefits this design delivers.

ABB (www.abb.com) is a leader in power and automation technologies that enable utility and industry customers to improve their performance while lowering environmental impact. The ABB Group of companies operates in around 100 countries and employs about 120,000 people.