Qualitrol
Subsidiary | |
Industry | |
Founded | 1945 |
Headquarters | United States |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people |
Raj Karanam (President) |
Products |
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Parent | Danaher Corporation |
Subsidiaries |
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Website |
www |
Qualitrol is a global asset condition based monitoring company headquartered in Fairport, New York, United States. Qualitrol manufacturers and distributes partial discharge monitoring, asset protection equipment and information products across electrical generation, transmission and distribution industries.[1] Qualitrol condition based monitoring solutions are designed for high-value assets to improve the owner's base utilization by enabling reduced asset failures, maintenance costs, and capital expenditures.
In addition to monitoring equipment, the company offers customer training services and field services, such as on-site start-up and testing, customized maintenance, product upgrades, troubleshooting, and repair services. It serves customers in the Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Latin America, and North America.
History
Early Days
George Ford was the founder of Qualitrol. Mr. Ford, born in 1907 in Barrie, Ontario, Canada, and son of Thomas Henry Ford and Rachel Mary Jones, was a private investor, sportsman, and philanthropist. His family moved to Rochester, New York when he was a child, where he completed his secondary education and then graduated as an engineer from the University of Rochester.[2]
At the age of 38, he left his position as Vice President of Engineering at the Rochester Manufacturing Company to establish a new company when he became aware of a major deficiency in the manufacturing industry of heavy electronic transformers and generators of diesel engines. He identified the risks of unexpected accidents while using gas and flame without protective devices.[2]
Using seed money from his brother in law, Mort Watters, and from his mother-in-law, Rose Gavin, Mr. Ford decided to build a company to fill the need for monitoring and controlling devices for the electrical transformers industry.[3] Thus, in 1945 Mr. Ford founded Qualitrol Corporation in Fairport, New York, and began to provide the electric utility industry with protective devices and with monitoring systems for transmission and distribution. Mr. Ford opened a branch of Qualitrol in Waynesboro, Tennessee to manufacture valves. Later, Mr. Ford bought the Microcontrol in St. Louis, Missouri, a manufacturer of thermostats, and the Dynapar Corporation in Gurney, Illinois a manufacturer of digital controls. Finally, in the late 1960s, Mr. Ford sold all of his business interests to devote more time to his love of sports.
Danaher Acquisition
Qualitrol LLC traces its roots to 1986, when Danaher Corporation acquired Qualitrol.[4] Within two years of Danaher's founding in 1984, Danaher Corporation acquired 12 companies as part of a strategy to enter the manufacturing business. Thus, Qualitrol became part of Danaher's instrumentation unit, which included Gilbarco Veeder-Root's underground fuel storage sensors, Dynapar's motion sensors and Qualitrol's pressure and temperature measurement instruments, used on the electrical transformer industry.[5]
Corporate Affairs
At the end of 2007, Qualitrol started to collaborate with Neoptix Inc. Headquartered in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, Neoptix is manufacturer of fiber optic temperature sensors.[6] Initially, Qualitrol and Neoptix worked together on the integration of data collected simultaneously from traditional methods of temperature measurement and from optical direct hot-spot sensors, while developing and producing new solutions for on-line condition monitoring for the electric transmission and distribution markets.[7] Subsequently, Neoptix became a sole subsidiary of Qualitrol.[8]
In 2010, Qualitrol acquired Iris Power. Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada, Iris Power is a supplier of on-line partial discharge testing of stator winding insulation in large motors and generators. Qualitrol purchased Iris power from subsidiaries of Koch Chemical Technology Group, LLC, a multinational from Wichita, Kansas, United States. Iris Power's fleet of portable and continuous instruments, and monitoring systems that are integrated into a power plants Distributed Control System (DCS) or a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA), brought to Qualitrol a close strategic fit directed to assisting Qualitrol's utility customers, from electrical generation to transmission and distribution.[9]
Divisions
- Asset Protection
- Transmission and Distribution
- Condition monitoring for Transmission and Distribution
- Condition monitoring for Generation
- Services
Products
Asset Protection
- Temperature Measurement Devices
- Pressure Controls, Gauges, and Relays
- Transformer Monitors
- Liquid Level
- Flow
- Gas
- Breaker Monitors, SF6 Controls and Gauges
Transmission and Distribution
- Fault Recording and Fault Location
- Power Quality Monitoring
- Sequential Events Recording and Alarm Annunciation
- Multifunction Software
Condition Monitoring
Global Operations
Headquartered in Fairport, New York, United States, the company also has manufacturing facilities in Belfast, Northern Ireland; Glasgow, United Kingdom; Quebec City, Quebec, Canada; Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. The Belfast facility focuses on Qualitrol Instruments and the Glasgow facility develops Qualitrol DMS. The Quebec City unit operates under Neoptix and the Mississauga unit operates under Iris Power.[10] Though each location specializes in distinct areas of the Qualitrol, the projects are worked on by teams in multiple locations.
Qualitrol adheres to the following international organizations:
- Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE-SA)[11]
- International Council on Large Electric Systems (CIGRE)[12]
Offices
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Headquarters Expansion
At the end of 2011, Qualitrol began the expansion of its current production facility in Fairport, New York, United States, to 30,000 square feet. The expansion proposal was submitted to the Conservation Board of the town of Perinton, New York, United States, and will take place in two phases, each phase at 15,000 square feet. Although there is no timeline for Phase 2, the Phase 1 of the expansion project is expected to be completed at the end of 2012.[13]
Subsidiaries
- Qualitrol LLC
- Diagnostic Monitoring Systems Ltd
- Iris Power LP
- Neoptix Fiber Optics LP
- BPL Global (Serveron)
Executive Management
- President: Raj Karanam
- Vice President Iris Power: Joseph Mbuyi
- Vice President Finance: Shane Murphy
- Vice President Human Resources: Brian English
See also
- Condition monitoring
- Condition-based maintenance
- Partial Discharge
- Dissolved gas analysis
- Electric power transmission
- Electric power distribution
- Electric generator
- Electric motor
- Electrical substation
- Switchgear
- Transformer
External links
References
- ↑ "About the Company". Qualitrol. 2012. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- 1 2 "George Edward Ford Obituary". The New York Times. 28 December 2004. Retrieved 8 June 2012.
- ↑ Ford, Louis (2001). Weezie: A Palm Beach Story. Media Creations, Incorporated, 2011. p. 168. ISBN 9781605946962.
- ↑ Carr, Bruce (7 January 2009). "Meyer Named Thomson President". eBearing.com. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
- ↑ Dubovoj, Sina; Ingram, Frederick (2006). "Danaher Corporation". Resource Library CBS Interactive. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
- ↑ "Qualitrol and Neoptix to Collaborate on Fiber Optic Monitoring Solutions". Neoptix. 30 October 2007. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- ↑ "Qualitrol, Neoptix to collaborate on Fiber Optic Monitoring Products". Transmission & Distribution World. 7 December 2007. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- ↑ "About Neoptix Canada LP". Neoptix. 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- ↑ "Qualitrol Acquires Iris Power" (PDF). Iris Power. 26 April 2010. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- ↑ "Contact Us". Qualitrol. 2012. Retrieved 12 June 2012.
- ↑ "IEEE Power and Energy Society General Meeting". IEEE. 2011. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- ↑ "CIGRE Technical Exhibition". CIGRE. 2012. Retrieved 13 June 2012.
- ↑ Cannon, Joan (18 October 2011). "Minutes of the Town of Perinton Conservation Board Meeting" (PDF). Retrieved 13 June 2012.