Obsolete Crabtree Polestar Breakers
In the late 1980's Crabtree were looking to replace the outdated (but still widely used) C50 range. What they came up with was the Polestar range and it was a great success in commercial and industrial applications.
The Polestar range of breakers was unique because they had a higher than usual fault rating of 16kA where standard breakers at the time were 6kA and 9kA. What this meant was that Polestar could be used in areas where a high kA was required without having to use Moulded Case Breakers (MCCB's) or HRC fuse carriers. Crabtree Polestar breakers are also unique in that they are much wider (25mm) than a standard mcb (18mm). This extra width was needed for the bigger arc splitter to allow for a higher kA rating.
Initially the range was made to BS3871 standards so Types 2 & 3 were available from 6A up to 63A in single and triple pole. RCBO's were also available but they were initially referred to as MCB/RCD units as the term RCBO was not really established as yet.
After 1994 the British Standard of BS60898 came into effect and the range was changed to Types B, C & D and now included double pole mcb's as well. RCBO's were now being widely used and theses were available in Types B & C although it's rare to see Type B in use as most installations were commercial.
Crabtree manufactured the range until around the early 2000's then it was phased out. They did hold quite a bit of stock but this was largely held for TFL (Transport for London) as part of an agreement to hold stocks for spares and ongoing developments etc.
A new range of Polestar was launched in 2012 and called Polestar Compact. Although the new range was 16kA rated due to advances in technology it was significantly slimmer and is not interchangeable with the older style.
Crabtree Polestar is still widely used today and we have plenty of stock available from our website.
MEM Memshield 2 RCBO POD
The MEM Memshield 2 rcbo pod was a fantastic device that clipped onto an existing Memshield 2 MCB and basically converted it into a rcbo. The pods are not actually obsolete and are available from Eaton (who bought out MEM) but expect to pay around £70+ VAT at your local wholesaler. Eaton have mentioned discontinuing the item but I don't see that happening any time soon as there is still a lot of old breakers in use and I would imagine they are making good money on the item. Basically they have you over a barrel, unless you know where to get them cheap and that's where we come in 🙂
Not all pods are the same, some have long leads for triple pole boards and some have short leads for use in domestic boards. Also worth mentioning that the pods will fit the Memera 2000 range of MCB's as well but only the part numbers that start ALB or ALC.
Pods on their own as usually referred to as ‘Field Fit' which basically means you have to fit the pod to the mcb on site. Not a hard task but worth taking a look at the instructions of you have not done one before as they can be fragile and easily broken if you're not careful.
You can also buy MCB's pre-fitted with a pod in both the Memshield 2 and Memera 2000 ranges. These are usually just the 30mA size but field fit versions are availble is the following sizes:
MR10 – 10mA
MR30 – 30mA
MR100 – 100mA
MR300 – 300mA
Fitting instruction for pods can be downloaded form our Technical & Catalogue page.
Stock sells out really fast on the MEM Memshield 2 rcbo pod but to see our current range please click here.