TEFELEN America Partners with Hepburn and Sons

Hepburn and Sons LLC, premier advisors to the American maritime industry, recently visited TEFELEN America in Frederick, Md. to discuss their new partnership.

Hepburn and Sons LLC’s President/CEO retired U.S. Navy Captain, Rick Hepburn met with TEFELEN America’s President/CEO, Philip Brown on Thursday, June 21, 2018, to discuss conjoined marketing and sales efforts between the two companies. Also in attendance was Hepburn and Sons LLC’s Principal, Customer Relations Officer, Samantha Hepburn Hertel.

In December 2017, The Executive Control Board of the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP) selected a new round of Research & Development (R&D) projects for award, as part of the program's continuing mission to reduce costs associated with U.S. shipbuilding and ship repair. TEFELEN America and Hepburn and Sons LLC were awarded the Land Based Case Study of Insulated Bus Pipe (IBP) for Ship Design. The overall objective of this project is to physically demonstrate the return on investment and benefits of using IBP in a shipboard application simulated at Florida State University (FSU) Center of Advanced Power Systems (CAPS) (lab developed with support from the Navy for naval electrical power innovations) for all the shipyards to witness and contribute their vision of how this technology can be implemented in their respective ship designs.

Hepburn and Sons LLC, an advisor to the American maritime industry, was founded in Manassas, Va. in 2010, and the firm’s technical expertise includes mechanical, electrical, nuclear, systems, information technology and cybersecurity, missile defense, material science, naval architecture and naval engineering. Their strengths include program management, electromagnetic pulse (EMP), warfare and combat systems.

Capt. Hepburn said, “Qualification of a high temperature insulated bus bar system for the U.S. Navy will facilitate supporting higher power systems of the future aboard ship. The TEFELEN America and Hepburn and Sons LLC team brings recognized engineering excellence and proven ship design experience to assure this insulated bus bar technology reduces the size, weight and cost of conductors used in electrical equipment. Cost and labor reduction is realized by installation of sections of the power transmission backbone during early ship unit prefabrication. Large ship electric bus cable installations at the end of construction are greatly reduced. This saves both labor and improves safety. Cable pulling [8 pounds a foot] is one of the major causes of injuries to electricians and is on the critical path of warship construction.”

TEFELEN America, which is an acronym for “Technology for Electrical Energy”, is the first American company providing special low and medium voltage cast resin insulated busbar systems. Together with its partner, technology company Phoenix Mecano, TEFELEN America is working to establish and strengthen the application of cast resin busbar systems throughout the American market. TEFELEN America is based out of Frederick, Md. in Phoenix Mecano’s warehouse building. Construction of the TEFELEN America plant is underway and production will begin soon.

Brown said, “Tefelen America is on schedule to commission the Insulated Buspipe technology. Design engineering, technical support, production and a high voltage test laboratory are all located at our Frederick, Md. operation.”

An opening day event in cooperation with Hepburn and Sons LLC is planned for October 19 at the TEFELEN America facility in Frederick, Md.