Tyco Electronics
Crompton Instrumentation is central to a green future
Tyco Electronics is an established company offering the Crompton Instruments line of power measurement, control and protection instrumentation products which provide solutions across a wide variety of industries.
Being part of the Tyco Electronics organisation puts it in pole position for future expansion into burgeoning markets. The Crompton Instruments company joined Tyco Electronics’ Energy Division in 2002, which has annual sales of around $800 million. Within Tyco Electronics, Crompton Instruments products forms part of a tripartite UK alliance of electric component products, alongside Dorman Smith LV switchgear and Bowthorpe EMP transient voltage surge suppression (TVSS) products.
Tyco International has recently separated its $40 billion empire into three stand-alone companies: Tyco Electronics, Covidien, focusing on healthcare; and Tyco International, which is focused on engineered products, fire protection and security systems.
Eric Williams, regional sales manager for Tyco Electronics Industrial Products in the UK and Ireland, comments on the status of Tyco Electronics: “Tyco Electronics supplies its Dorman Smith switchboards and circuit protection equipment, including electrical distribution; together with Crompton Instruments detection instrumentation and Bowthorpe EMP TVSS units to offer a complete range of products that help to easily fulfil the new L2 Building Regulation requirements. Basically, the Dorman Smith product line is the catchall for the Bowthorpe EMP and Crompton Instruments components.
“Bowthorpe EMP products have been in the market for the last 60 years; Dorman Smith products date back to 1878; with Crompton Instruments products dating back to 1881. The products have developed over this period of time in an evolutionary way from simple beginnings, to the complex range offered today. Crompton Instruments products today are sold worldwide; Bowthorpe EMP TVVS units are sold mainly in the UK, and the Dorman Smith product line has two principal centres – one in the UK, and one in Dubai.”
Eric continues to explain how Tyco Electronics’ involvement has aided Crompton Instruments product line expansion in the low voltage component range: “The products have been with Tyco Electronics since 2002. Since then, the major factor has been the prosperity of the organisation and its position as one of the biggest companies in the world, bringing higher levels of organisation and more investment into product and market development. This has aided the expansion into different markets, as well as bringing products to customers more rapidly and in line with current demands and needs. Tyco Electronics’ backing has given the ability to approach the market with a much greater spread of products. Tyco Electronics has a substantial design resource, as well as the ability to undertake extensive prototyping, beta and pre-production testing. The company has tackled the instrumentation market both from an innovation and development point of view, and also by being more cost-effective.”
Crompton Instruments products are currently at the forefront of technology, readily fulfilling the requirements of the new UK Government legislation, Part L2 of the Building Regulations. This legislation has changed the way electrical testing systems for buildings are designed and installed. The policy of the Government requires a 20 per cent reduction in CO2 emissions by 2010, and all new Tyco Electronics buildings over 1000 square metres must incorporate automatic meter reading technology. Eric elaborates: “Since the adoption of the L2 programme in 2006, there has been a complete change within the business of the requirements needed to tackle the measurement and management of power and lighting energy use. For any new building, over 90 per cent of the energy used in that space must be measured to see how it is being used and where it is going. This means it must be measured both at the source as well as at the point of distribution. These are fan-out systems, typically featuring one big switchboard, several submains, and many other components, meaning that these systems can technically be very expansive. Our Crompton Instruments product line has grown from the installation of a simple kilowatt per hour meter for industries, to the supply of hi-tech power measurement components for this new legislation.”
This change has encouraged Tyco Electronics’ research and design team to focus on developing how its Crompton Instruments metering systems are housed, especially how data is displayed, and the overall size of components produced. Eric states: “The company deals extensively with the utility and manufacturing industries, because in the use of robotics and remote control as part of this process, greater levels of detection, display, presentation of data and operator interface are needed. The needs for data, and the uses of this information, have been developed progressively within the last 15 to 20 years, and the size of products has become smaller. Nowadays, clients are looking for products that are small, lightweight, highly functional and safe, as well as meeting environmental and space constraints. Everything is getting smaller, less expensive, and more functional.”
On Wednesday 11th July, Tyco Electronics officially joined the New York Stock Exchange, a significant step for the company. To celebrate this, Tyco Electronics has been informing its employees of the history and scope of the company, as Eric concludes: “Twice weekly, over recent months, the company has produced encapsulated ‘fast facts’ about Tyco Electronics that people might not be aware of, emphasising the identity and scale of business. For example, there is more than 375,00 kilometres of Tyco Electronics fibre optic cable on the ocean floor that help enable the worldwide internet. Our employees need to be aware of these aspects of the company’s impressive history.” Crompton is a trademark of Crompton Parkinson Ltd and is used by Tyco Electronics under licence. Other trademarks and company names used herein are the property of their respective owners.
Tyco Electronics
Products: Tyco Electronics power measurement, protection and control instruments
Sites: UK
Employees: 300
www.crompton-instruments.com
www.energy.tycoelectronics.com