According to ABB and Finkl Steel, installation of an ABB vacuum arc furnace circuit breaker has brought to an end disruptive quarterly maintenance cycles and annual circuit breaker reconditioning, which slowed production and tied up resources.

“It’s been a very sound investment, as a year in no one has touched it. The (breaker) is capable of 150,000 operations and as we’ll probably have it for at least 10 years, that equates to a decade of no maintenance. Before that it was continuous inspections, repairs, rebuilds and all the associated breakages, part costs and hours of downtime,” said Finkl Steel project engineer Phillipe Tremblay. 

You can read more about the project here.