US based Hawthorn Cat is an official dealer of Cat® diesel generators, including emergency standby, peak shaving, co-generation, prime and standby power systems.

With the world-class reputation of Caterpillar products to uphold, Hawthorn works hard to ensure that the generators that it supplies deliver on-going, reliable performance throughout their lifetime. To do so, each Cat diesel generator supplied by the company is fully tested at and above 100% of rated load for operation and safety – with Crestchic loadbanks a key supplier of the equipment used to test the performance and reliability of the generators.

Paul Brickman, Sales and Marketing Director at Crestchic, explains, “Our expertise, ability to supply a range of solutions and worldwide presence makes us the ideal choice for a company like Hawthorn. They understand that moving, installation and site conditions can all affect the reliability of a system, making testing vital during the commissioning phase. By using Crestchic loadbanks immediately after installation, as well as for ongoing testing and maintenance, Hawthorn can offer their customers complete reassurance that their generator system will work efficiently when required.”

Specialist manufacturers and suppliers of loadbanks since 1983, Crestchic has sales and rentals offices in the UK, North America, Singapore, Netherlands, France, Germany, India, Brazil and Dubai, making them the largest load bank specialists in the world. As well as off-the-shelf solutions such as DC loadbanks, AC Resistive loadbanks, AC resistive-recative loadbanks, medium voltage loadbanks, transformers and control systems, the company has the expertise and capability to develop tailor-made and custom-designed loadbanks of any size at any voltage and frequency.

Paul continues, “I’d estimate we’ve sold 100s of loadbanks to Hawthorn over the years. The latest is a large, 30ft, medium voltage resistive reactive loadbank which features a dual control for extra safety. It will be used for critical testing of generators at a nuclear power station in California. In that particular application, emergency backup generators are designed to switch on to power vital equipment such as emergency cooling pumps for the plant – making them mission-critical. Loadbank testing gives Hawthorn and their customers the opportunity to test how generators would perform in a real-life power outage.”