As seen in Modern Distribution Magazine. 

Square D, best known in the U.S. as the flagship brand for the Schneider Electric North American Operation Division, realized there might be a problem with counterfeiting of its circuit breakers when the manufacturer started seeing an increase in defective product returns.

“When we would go to check the returned product, we would find out they were counterfeit, and that we hadn’t manufactured them,” says Bill Snyder, vice president for channel development.

Counterfeiters had taken their own products and slapped fake Square D labels on them. Historically, counterfeits have been easy to detect. But the counterfeiters have grown more sophisticated, Snyder says, making it more difficult to name a product counterfeit with just a cursory examination.

“The external appearance – labels and markings – looks very much like genuine product,” Snyder says. “That’s the problem because that’s where it stops. The mechanisms and material are incredibly substandard.”

It may not be obvious that a product is not real. “The counterfeiters do enough just to fool,” says Clark Silcox, National Electrical Manufacturers Association general counsel. NEMA wants counterfeits to register on the radar of distributors, contractors and other end-users.

To continue reading this article, click here.

To read additional information regarding counterfeit products, click here for reports from Sanitary Maintenance.