Electrium is a German-owned British manufacturer of electrical wiring accessories, circuit protection, cable management, and control equipment.
Electrium has two sites across the UK as of 2025: the old main factory in Wythenshawe, Manchester closed in 2024, [1] leaving only the distribution center at Hindley Green, Wigan, and the head office at Cannock, West Midlands.
The company is under the ownership of Siemens AG UK.[ citation needed ]
After the takeover of Electrium Sales Ltd by Siemens AG in 2005, Electrium began to manufacture and distribute Siemens branded circuit protection and electrical equipment.
J. A. Crabtree & Co was founded in 1919 by John Ashworth Crabtree. [2] The company became one of Britain's leading manufacturers of electrical accessories, low voltage switchgear and motor control gear. In 1972, the company was acquired by the British Ever Ready Electrical Company, which was itself acquired by Hanson Trust in 1981. For many years the company was based at the Lincoln Works in Walsall, Staffordshire, which was closed in 1997.
Ward & Goldstone Ltd. was founded in 1892 by James Henry Ward and Meyer Hart Goldstone. [3] The company's Volex Accessories brand is now part of the Electrium Group and manufactures and sells circuit protection and wiring accessories.
George H. Scholes Ltd. was founded in the mid-1920s by George Hamer Scholes to manufacture electrical accessories and fuse boxes. In 1934, he built the Wylex Works at Wythenshawe, near Manchester. [4]
The company's Wylex brand consumer units still dominate the UK market. However, in recent years RCD protected consumer units have generally replaced the old rewireable fuse units. Parent company Siemens have now begun manufacturing the MCBs used in the more of the company's products in Europe.
H. & L. Appleby Ltd. was founded in 1840. The company's factory was in Short Heath, Willenhall, Staffordshire. [5]
The company offers a comprehensive range of pattress boxes, dry lining boxes and bulkhead light fittings.
Marbourn Ltd. was a British manufacturer of electrical accessories, based in the North East of England. The company closed its factory in Hartlepool in 2000. [6]
There is also a science museum in Sainte-Julie, Quebec called Electrium, see Électrium .
ABB Group is a Swedish-Swiss multinational electrical engineering corporation. Incorporated in Switzerland as ABB Ltd., and headquartered in Zurich, it is dual-listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich and the Nasdaq Nordic exchange in Stockholm, Sweden, in addition to OTC Markets Group's pink sheets in the United States. ABB was ranked 340th in the Fortune Global 500 list of 2020 and has been a global Fortune 500 company for 24 years.
In electronics and electrical engineering, a fuse is an electrical safety device that operates to provide overcurrent protection of an electrical circuit. Its essential component is a metal wire or strip that melts when too much current flows through it, thereby stopping or interrupting the current. It is a sacrificial device; once a fuse has operated, it is an open circuit, and must be replaced or rewired, depending on its type.
A distribution board is a component of an electricity supply system that divides an electrical power feed into subsidiary circuits while providing a protective fuse or circuit breaker for each circuit in a common enclosure. Normally, a main switch, and in recent boards, one or more residual-current devices (RCDs) or residual current breakers with overcurrent protection (RCBOs) are also incorporated.
Wythenshawe is an area of Manchester, England. Historically part of Cheshire, in 1931 Wythenshawe was transferred to the City of Manchester, which had begun building a large housing estate there in the 1920s. With an area of approximately 11 square miles (28 km2), Wythenshawe became the largest council estate in Europe.
Lucas Industries plc was a Birmingham-based British manufacturer of motor industry and aerospace industry components. Once prominent, it was listed on the London Stock Exchange and was formerly a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. In August 1996, Lucas merged with the American Varity Corporation to form LucasVarity.
Siemens Brothers and Company Limited was an electrical engineering design and manufacturing business in London, England. It was first established as a branch in 1858 by a brother of the founder of the German electrical engineering firm Siemens & Halske. The principal works were at Woolwich where cables and light-current electrical apparatus were produced from 1863 until 1968. The site between the Thames Barrier and Woolwich Dockyard has retained several buildings of historic interest. New works were built at Stafford in 1903 and Dalston in 1908.
Square D is an American manufacturer of electrical equipment headquartered in Andover, Massachusetts. Square D is a flagship brand of Schneider Electric, which acquired the company in 1991.
Rubery Owen is a British engineering company which was founded in 1884 in Darlaston, West Midlands.
Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. is a manufacturer of electric wire and optical fiber cables. Its headquarters are in Chūō-ku, Osaka, Japan. The company's shares are listed in the first section of the Tokyo, Nagoya Stock Exchanges, and the Fukuoka Stock Exchange. In the period ending March 2021, the company reported consolidated sales of US$26,5 billion.
The British Ever Ready Electrical Company (BEREC) was a British electrical firm formed in 1906 as the export branch of the American Eveready Battery Company. In 1914 it became independent of its American parent company.
The Westinghouse Brake & Signal Company Ltd was a British manufacturer of railroad signs. Founded by George Westinghouse, it was registered as "Westinghouse Brake Company" in 1881. The company reorganised in 1920, associating with Evans O'Donnell, and Saxby and Farmer which merged to form the "Westinghouse Brake & Saxby Signal Company". The 'Saxby' would be dropped from their title in 1935.
Zinsco was a manufacturer of electrical distribution panels and circuit breakers, founded by Emile Martin Zinsmeyer and his son Martin Emile Zinsmeyer in the early 1930s.
Havells India Limited is an Indian multinational electrical equipment company, based in Noida. The company manufactures home appliances, lighting for domestic, commercial and industrial applications, LED lighting, fans, modular switches and wiring accessories, water heaters, industrial and domestic circuit protection switchgear, industrial and domestic cables and wires, induction motors, and capacitors among others. Havells owns brands like Havells, Lloyd, Crabtree, Standard Electric, Reo and Promptec.
Samvardhana Motherson International Ltd is an Indian multinational manufacturer of automotive components, based in Noida. It makes wiring harnesses, plastic components and rearview mirrors for passenger cars. The company was established in 1986 as a joint venture with the Sumitomo Group of Japan.
A motor control center (MCC) is an assembly to control some or all electric motors in a central location. It consists of multiple enclosed sections having a common power bus and with each section containing a combination starter, which in turn consists of motor starter, fuses or circuit breaker, and power disconnect. A motor control center can also include push buttons, indicator lights, variable-frequency drives, programmable logic controllers, and metering equipment. It may be combined with the electrical service entrance for the building.
Panasonic Life Solutions India Pvt. Ltd. is an Indian electrical equipment company. It is the largest manufacturer of modular and non-modular electrical switches in India. Aside from switches, it also manufactures low voltage switchgear, wires and cables, light and fans among other things.
The Edison and Swan Electric Light Company Limited was a manufacturer of incandescent lamp bulbs and other electrical goods. It was formed in 1883 with the name Edison & Swan United Electric Light Company with the merger of the Swan United Electric Company and the Edison Electric Light Company.
Plugs and sockets for electrical appliances not hardwired to mains electricity originated in the United Kingdom in the 1870s and were initially two-pin designs. These were usually sold as a mating pair, but gradually de facto and then official standards arose to enable the interchange of compatible devices. British standards have proliferated throughout large parts of the former British Empire.
Railless is the generic name for three companies which made trolleybuses in Britain between 1906 and 1926. Railless Electric Traction Co Ltd was established in 1908, and were at the forefront of the introduction of trolleybuses to Britain. Financial difficulties in 1911 resulted in RET Construction Co Ltd being formed, to take over the business, goodwill and patents of Railless Electric Traction. This company ran out of orders during the First World War, and went into receivership. Charles H. Roe took over the bodywork part of the business, using RET's works in Leeds, and the goodwill and patents were sold to Railless Ltd, a new company which had been set up by Short Bros Ltd, and manufacture of the chassis transferred to their Seaplane works at Rochester, Kent.
Founded in 1838, George Kent Ltd was initially a manufacturer of household gadgets, then a manufacturer of munitions during World War One, and became the largest British manufacturer of instruments for industrial control systems, prior to its acquisition by Brown Boveri in 1974.