Established in 1930 by Major A H Bowden and his brother E L Bowden, Bowden Bros Ltd was run as a family business until November 2022, when the Bowdens brand was bought by Spring (Europe) Ltd. Spring had been developing and manufacturing the Bowdens range of underground earth fault indicators since 2015. Furthermore, the directors of both companies had had a long association, so Spring was a natural choice to take over the brand to continue the seamless supply of all the Bowdens products.
Spring (Europe) offers an experienced labour force and an expert design team who can cover the spectrum from simple assembly to turnkey projects. Our engineers will work to your exacting requirements, whatever your industry, quality systems, timescale or budget, basing our design process on your needs to produce a best of breed solution for your industry.
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Brief History of Bowdens
1930
Bowden Bros Ltd founded by Major A.H. Bowden and his brother E.L. Bowden
1962
Jimmy Bowden takes over as M.D. from his father, and introduced underground marking tape into the UK for the first time.
1973
The first Overhead Line fault passage indicator, Pathfinder, was developed with SWEB and marketed in the UK.
1984
Ian Bowden, who joined the company in 1975 takes over from his father as MD, and the business relocates to Compass House in Bromley, Kent.
1987
Bowdens introduces the first electronic fault indicator for underground networks to replace the mechanical devices that were used historically.
1992
Bowden Bros relocates to Dorking and introduces the first practical permanently installed OHL fault passage indicator to the UK.
2004
Remote communications introduced to key models of OHL and UGC fault indicators to allow rapid analysis of fault detection.
2005
Saw the very early days of producing a communication module using a Telit GSM module. This was produced for a product called Powerwatch, which used a newly developed sensor strapped to the insulation of an LV conductor which would detect the presence of mains voltage. If the volts went off a GSM message was sent to a mobile telephone. Numerous applications to monitor remote critical supplies were found.
2006
The GSM module was further developed to be fitted to the Pathfinder 360 so that a remote message could be sent to a mobile phone when an HV fault was detected.
2007
A PC or laptop program was written (confusingly called Powerwatch) to manage data reporting from a number of Pathfinders.
2007
The Portable Pathfinder MK10 was introduced to send a GSM message when a fault was detected on a HV network. It was particularly useful in finding repetitive transient faults.
2012
Lee Vaughan Cable Identifier MKV introduced to offer variable output signal and roving sensing coil.
2013
Network Rail PADS approval for the Schneider ASR system to reconfigure the signalling network based on data collected from an adapted SIGMA FPR.
2016
All Bowdens EFIs converted to Surface Mount technology.
2016
The Portable Pathfinder MK9B developed in conjunction with SSE to enable low value Sensitive Earth Faults to be detected as well as traditional Earth faults.
2017
Omega III EFI was developed and released.
2022
Sale of Bowden-Bros Ltd to Spring (Europe) Ltd.
2023
Development of the Linkbox and LV FPI.