History

A combination of long experience and pioneering development is the backbone of Brush Transformers, which boasts over 120 years of transformer manufacture.

Our founder, the American Charles Francis Brush, born in 1849, was an inventor, physicist, chemist, mining and electrical engineer and a banker, gaining the respect of his era for his pioneering work in the field of electrical generation, lighting and motors, as well as transformers. And this against a background where some feared electric light to be ‘painfully and even dangerously intense, liable to injure the eyes and produce headaches’. Brush’s reply to this criticism was that ‘the same objection may be raised against the sun’!

In 1879 the Anglo American Electric Light Corporation was founded to exploit Brush’s inventions in the UK; this became the Anglo American Brush Electric Light Corporation, based in Lambeth, London. The company’s first transformer was constructed in 1881, a time when Brush was pioneering the electrification of towns in the USA and the UK, supplying whole lighting systems using Brush generators and arc-lamps. By the time we patented our first HV transformer in 1888, the name of Brush was well established on both sides of the Atlantic.

Desirous of entering the new field of electric tramcars Brush then sought what we today would call a ‘greenfield site’, and a suitable location was found in the form of the Falcon Engine & Car Works Ltd in Loughborough. The Brush company and the Falcon company, with their established skills of electrical engineering and transport engineering, were re-formed into the Brush Electrical Engineering Co Ltd (BEE) on 10 August 1889 with the main works at Loughborough, where Brush Transformers still operates today; indeed, descendants from the original families still work here. BEE gradually became one of the pioneer firms in the development of machines for the introduction of electric light, and in the manufacture of direct current generators, alternators and early forms of traction equipment. Brush Transformers has continued that pioneering tradition in designing and producing transformers for power, distribution and mining applications world-wide.

By 1897 transformer manufacture had risen to 17% of the company’s output. By 1903 all workshops were fully occupied on the enlarged site, with electric lights, motors, generators, steam engines, steam and electric locomotives, transformers, switchgear, steam turbines, tramcars and underground rolling stock being produced. In 1920 a new extension for transformers was built, with production in 1921 running at record level. In 1933 another extension to the Transformer Shop was completed, giving improved testing facilities and providing for the production of larger transformers. More expansion took place in 1947, 1950 and 1962, with 1965 seeing the official opening by Lord Robens of a large transformer building, enabling manufacture of large power transformers up to 132kV and 150 tons. The demand for transformers and the confidence in the company was such that orders were received from the Coal Board before the building was complete!

In 1957 the Brush Group was acquired by Hawker Siddeley and new capital was injected into the Falcon Works, which by this time employed about 4,500 people in 40 acres of workshops on a site of 60 acres. Brush had by now established a world-wide reputation for distribution and power transformers. In 1971 the various divisions of BEE became autonomous companies based on their distinctive and individual product ranges, and Brush Transformers Limited came into being. The Hawker Siddeley Group was acquired by BTR plc in November 1991, and in November 1996 its Electric Power Group was sold to FKI plc, who formed a dedicated Transformers Division, now joined with Switchgear to form FKI Switchgear and Transformers.

Brush Transformers has achieved many world ‘firsts’ over the years, especially in its pioneering flameproof range. In 1958 we designed and built the first all-British flameproof dry type mining transformer, a unit which brought new safety and new economical operating conditions into UK mining, allowing transformers to be placed close to the working face. In 1959 this transformer gained Buxton certification, winning the coveted premier silver plaque award at the international Association of Supervisory Electrical Engineers (ASEE) Exhibition at Earl’s Court. In 1963 Brush developed the world’s first flameproof underground switchgear using SF6 gas-filled circuit breakers; this gained Buxton certification in 1966, winning the ASEE premier award in 1970. Since that year, thousands of Brush flameproof circuit breakers have been supplied all over the world, and the company has never been called out to replace a single set of contacts. In 1964 the Brush 33kV tapchanger, a breakthrough in switching technology for mining, also won the ASEE premier award. Brush have also developed special flameproof designs for mining areas with particular problems, such as very shallow coal seams in Africa, where we were the first company to design low-profile flameproof 11 kV, 1000 kVA transformers under 1 metre high. This range won the 1992 IMEMME President’s Award for Excellence in 1992.

So where are we today? We have worked hard over the years to develop close relationships with the UK regional electricity companies, and are major players in the supply of their bulk contracts. We have also gradually built up keystone strategic partnerships in the international petrochemical sector. Our success in surface and underground mining applications has been perpetuated and expanded into such countries as China, Canada, Spain, Turkey, Russia, India and Poland. Our expertise has been applied to specialist applications such as the supply of a new form of transformer to the rail industry for mounting on rolling stock.

We have brought light, water, and mechanical power to people in over 100 countries. We have taught engineers in other foreign countries, not only to install our products, but how to make them and make them well. Installations totalling hundreds of thousands of kVA capacity are in operation the world over. Our equipment is to be found in all environments and applications; industrial or domestic, surface or underground, onshore or offshore, for conventional or specialised supplies.

Whatever you order from Brush, you can expect excellence in the field.