- The Detroit Fuse and Manufacturing Company stamped a "D" for Detroit inside a square on the cover of its safety switches. Customers started to call it Square D, and in 1917 the company officially changed its name to SquareD. It introduced an exclusive line of QO (Qwik-Open) 3/4-inch circuit breakers in 1955. Installed in electrical distribution boards of many North America homes, they became an industry standard.
- When Groupe Schneider (Paris, France) acquired the company in 1991, it retained SquareD as the brand name for the U.S. market. Schneider has plants in China, but also manufacturers in the United States. Over the years, the market for safety switches and load centers became very competitive as many companies began to sell through home improvement stores and big box retailers as well as to contractors.
- In order to compete in this new business atmosphere, SquareD developed HomeLine circuit breakers and load panels. The lower cost HomeLine utilizes aluminum bus bars instead of the copper used in the QO line in addition to lowering some of the other specifications in the interest of economy.
previous post