ABB and Its Water‑Metering History

1. Origins: George Kent Ltd (1838 → 1974)

The water‑metering lineage begins with George Kent Ltd, founded in 1838 in London. Kent became one of the world’s major manufacturers of water, gas, and steam meters, with large works in Luton and international branches.

Kent produced a wide range of mechanical meters and invented the Orivent flow‑meter recorder, used in major infrastructure such as Melbourne’s Spotswood Pumping Station in 1923 .

2. Brown Boveri Kent (1974 → 1988)

In 1974, George Kent Ltd was acquired by Brown Boveri, forming Brown Boveri Kent. This placed Kent’s metering business inside a major European electrical‑engineering conglomerate, but the product line remained focused on mechanical and industrial flow meters rather than domestic utilities.

3. ABB‑Kent (1988 → 2002)

In 1988, ASEA (Sweden) and Brown Boveri (Switzerland) merged to form ABB (ASEA‑Brown Boveri) .

This merger created ABB‑Kent, the metering division that continued to produce:

- Water meters (mechanical and industrial)

- Gas meters

- Heat and steam meters

- Flow‑measurement instrumentation

During this period ABB‑Kent was one of the world’s major metering suppliers, inheriting Kent’s long engineering tradition. After the merger, ABB unified the flow‑instrumentation portfolios of ASEA and Brown Boveri, creating a global measurement division specialising in:

- Electromagnetic flowmeters

- Coriolis mass flowmeters

- Variable‑area meters

- Pressure, temperature, and analytical instrumentation

- Industrial automation and SCADA integration

This consolidation positioned ABB as a major supplier to water utilities, wastewater treatment, mining, pulp and paper, and chemical processing. In 1990, ManuFlo of Australia adopted the ABB Magmaster electromagnetic flowmeter as its flagship product offering for aggressive water metering solutions, with the association continuing for the next 25 years.

4. ABB exits water metering (2002)

In 2002, ABB sold its entire worldwide metering business to Ruhrgas Industries GmbH. The operating company ABB Metering Ltd was renamed Elster Metering Ltd after the sale.

This sale ended ABB’s direct involvement in water‑meter manufacturing.

5. After ABB: Elster → Honeywell (2015)

Elster (formerly ABB‑Kent) was later acquired by Melrose, and then sold to Honeywell in 2015, where the Kent metering lineage continues today in Honeywell’s metering portfolio .

6. ABB today: still active in water analytics, not water metering.

Although ABB no longer manufactures water meters, it remains active in water‑quality monitoring, high end flow measurement equipment and smart‑water technologies.

In 2024, ABB acquired Real Tech Inc., maker of optical water‑quality sensors, expanding its presence in the water‑management sector . The Museum has a number of ABB products in its collection.