Duncan Instruments Canada: 50 Years Strong
May 10, 2018
Duncan Instruments was founded in 1968 by Matt K. Duncan and David Lloyd. This year they are celebrating 50 years in business serving Canada’s electrical industry. Duncan Instruments’ presence over five decades has allowed them to develop their business model alongside advancements in test and measurement equipment, and at times has been a driving factor in the distribution of new technology in the field. Duncan Instruments was founded in 1968 by Matt K. Duncan and David Lloyd. This year they are celebrating 50 years in business serving Canada’s electrical industry. Duncan Instruments’ presence over five decades has allowed them to develop their business model alongside advancements in test and measurement equipment, and at times has been a driving factor in the distribution of new technology in the field.
When it first opened, the company’s focus was on offering precision analog clamp-on ammeters and power meters for electrical contractors and utility services. However, in the 1970s and 80s as many colleges began offering courses in wiring and safe instrumentation usage, Duncan recognized that a new market was opening across Canada for the sale of laboratory instruments for students. To address this need, Duncan Instruments Canada expanded its sales focus to include colleges, trade schools and universities.
Moving forward, Duncan Instruments Canada continued to grow with the technology, ensuring that it was always providing the best products to its clients. They note that as analogue instruments became digital in appearance, their primary nature was still analogue, having higher current consumption and fast battery drain. As the instruments themselves began to become more digital in nature, offering more accurate readings safely became an issue for test and measurement, particularly for hydro utilities. A resolution to this concern came in the form of the CAT IV-1000V rated fused test leads, and Duncan was there providing the earliest of this technology to the industry.
Test and measurement were also essentials component for OEMs where mechanical production lines were required to operate in sync. At the time, popular test instruments were tachometers and stroboscopes, and Duncan Instruments Canada was again leading nationally with distribution of these products.
However, the situation changed with the rapid rise of computing technology and the internet. The ability for testing to reach new levels of speed with instantaneous computing of complex mathematical formulas and the ability to transfer data at the click of a button meant test and measurement product manufacturers were able to expand their offerings. Rather than fight the new wave, Duncan Instruments Canada followed its previous philosophy by adopting the new technology and driving the advantages it offered to the industry.
Further, with ISO 9008-2015 Duncan Instruments Canada provides OEMs, MROs, hydro utilities, electrical contractors, colleges and universities with quality calibration and certification for all its electrical and electronic instrumentation.
Beyond this, a key component to remember is that repair and calibration are essential for test instruments, and Duncan’s Service Department offers a calibration laboratory and repair shop. Duncan’s experienced personnel with extensive documentation library, in-house spare parts inventory and computerized replacement parts data base will restore your instruments to “as new” condition.” Duncan Instruments can repair a wide variety of test equipment, including multimeters, ohmmeters, power meters, and hi-pot testers through power supplies, oscilloscopes, tachometers and precisions calibrators, etc. And they are able to calibrate and certify instruments with AC and DC voltage and current, resistance, capacitance inductance and frequency. Their service department is well respected, and they have worked with companies such as ABB Canada, Ainsworth, Epson Manufacturing, Fluke Canada, GE, Honeywell, Schneider Canada, Siemens Canada and Westinghouse, to name but a few.
Duncan Instruments Canada has been a leader in the distribution, sale, repair and calibration of test and measurement equipment, and their continued focus on ensuring the Canadian market is up to date and provided with the best test instruments available has them well placed to continue their success over the next 50 years.
