Combustion Engineering / ABB Combustion Engineering

Company History

Combustion Engineering, Inc. (CE) was founded in 1912 and headquartered in Windsor, Connecticut. Over the course of seven decades, it grew into one of the most significant industrial equipment manufacturers in the United States, supplying steam generation systems to electric utilities, heavy industry, and the United States military. The company’s engineering reach extended from power plants serving major American cities to boiler rooms aboard Navy vessels and Liberty ships deployed during World War II and the Korean War era.

In 1990, the Swiss industrial conglomerate ABB Ltd. acquired Combustion Engineering, and the company operated for a period as ABB Combustion Engineering (ABB CE). Throughout the decades of CE’s peak production — roughly the 1940s through the early 1980s — asbestos was a primary insulating and sealing material used throughout its boiler systems and steam generators. Combustion Engineering ceased incorporating asbestos into its products in 1982.

The volume and duration of asbestos use across CE’s product lines ultimately produced one of the largest asbestos personal injury liabilities in American industrial history. In 2003, the ABB CE subsidiary filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, leading directly to the establishment of one of the largest asbestos trusts ever created under Section 524(g) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code.

Asbestos-Containing Products

Combustion Engineering manufactured and supplied asbestos-containing equipment across three principal categories: utility steam generators, industrial boilers, and marine boilers. Asbestos was integral to the thermal insulation, gaskets, refractory linings, and packing materials used throughout these systems.

Utility Steam Generators

CE was a dominant supplier of large-scale steam generators to American electric utilities from the 1940s through the 1970s. These utility-grade units were engineered to generate steam at extremely high temperatures and pressures, conditions that required extensive insulation throughout the unit’s exterior casing, piping, and internal components. Asbestos insulation — in the form of block insulation, pipe covering, cement, and blanket materials — was applied during original fabrication and was also present in replacement gaskets and packing supplied for maintenance cycles. Workers who installed, inspected, repaired, or replaced components on CE utility steam generators were routinely exposed to asbestos-containing materials for the full period during which CE used asbestos in production.

Industrial Boilers

CE produced a wide range of industrial boilers for manufacturing facilities, chemical plants, paper mills, refineries, and other heavy industrial users. These boilers served process heating and power generation needs and were typically installed in facilities where they would remain in service for decades. Asbestos was used in the boiler’s fireside and waterside insulation, in door and hatch gaskets, in expansion joints, and in the refractory materials lining combustion chambers. Maintenance tradespeople — including boilermakers, pipefitters, insulators, and millwrights — who worked on these units faced repeated asbestos exposure during scheduled outages, repairs, and relines. Because CE industrial boilers were sold across the country and remained in service well into the 1980s and 1990s, exposure events frequently extended beyond the date CE stopped manufacturing with asbestos.

Marine Boilers

Combustion Engineering was a documented supplier of marine boilers to the United States Navy and to shipbuilding programs that produced Liberty ships and other military and commercial vessels during and after World War II. Marine boiler environments were particularly hazardous from an asbestos standpoint: confined shipboard spaces concentrated airborne asbestos fibers, and CE marine boilers required the same asbestos-laden insulation, gaskets, and packing used in their land-based counterparts. Veterans who served as boiler technicians, machinist’s mates, or firemen aboard vessels equipped with CE boilers, as well as civilian shipyard workers who built or repaired those vessels, represent a significant portion of CE’s documented asbestos claimant population.

Occupational Exposure

The trades most heavily represented in asbestos claims against Combustion Engineering include boilermakers, pipefitters, insulation workers (insulators), millwrights, electricians, sheet metal workers, Navy and merchant marine veterans, and shipyard workers. Power plant operators and maintenance contractors who performed outage work on CE steam generators also constitute a recognized exposure group.

Exposure to CE asbestos-containing products typically occurred in several ways:

  • Original installation: Workers applying insulation to new CE boilers and steam generators at the factory or at jobsite commissioning handled raw asbestos insulating materials directly.
  • Maintenance and repair: Boilermakers and pipefitters who opened CE boiler casings, replaced gaskets, removed and reapplied insulation, or relined combustion chambers disturbed aged asbestos materials, releasing fibers into breathing zones.
  • Bystander exposure: Workers in adjacent trades present during insulation removal or gasket replacement were exposed to airborne fibers without directly handling CE products.
  • Shipboard service: Navy and merchant marine personnel stationed in engine rooms and fire rooms aboard CE-equipped vessels faced chronic, long-duration exposure in poorly ventilated spaces.

Mesothelioma, asbestosis, lung cancer, and other asbestos-related diseases have latency periods of 20 to 50 years from first exposure. Workers exposed to CE products during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s may be receiving diagnoses today.

Bankruptcy and Trust Formation

Following decades of asbestos personal injury litigation, ABB Ltd. sought to resolve CE’s asbestos liability through the bankruptcy process. In 2003, the ABB Combustion Engineering subsidiary filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The reorganization resulted in the creation of the Combustion Engineering 524(g) Asbestos PI Trust, established pursuant to Section 524(g) of the U.S. Bankruptcy Code. This provision is specifically designed to resolve mass asbestos liabilities by channeling all present and future claims to a dedicated trust fund, permanently protecting reorganized entities from further direct litigation.

The Combustion Engineering 524(g) Asbestos PI Trust was, at the time of its establishment, one of the largest asbestos personal injury trusts ever funded under this provision. The trust is the exclusive remedy for individuals with asbestos-related personal injury claims arising from exposure to CE products.

Filing a Claim

Eligible claimants — or their surviving family members in wrongful death cases — may file directly with the Combustion Engineering 524(g) Asbestos PI Trust. Trust claims are processed according to the Trust Distribution Procedures (TDP) established as part of CE’s bankruptcy plan of reorganization. The TDP sets out:

  • Disease categories and medical criteria: Claimants must submit medical documentation establishing a qualifying asbestos-related diagnosis, such as mesothelioma, lung cancer with asbestos exposure history, asbestosis, or other asbestos-related conditions defined in the TDP.
  • Exposure criteria: Claimants must provide documented evidence of occupational or other exposure to a CE asbestos-containing product. This typically includes employment records, union records, Social Security earnings histories, co-worker affidavits, or naval service records for veterans.
  • Claim forms and supporting documentation: The trust requires completion of standardized claim forms along with supporting medical and exposure records. An attorney experienced in asbestos trust claims can assist in assembling and submitting the required documentation.

The trust processes claims under both an Expedited Review process (for claims meeting defined medical and exposure criteria) and an Individual Review process (for claims that require more detailed evaluation). Payment values are determined by disease category and are subject to payment percentage adjustments based on the trust’s available assets relative to projected future claims.

Because Combustion Engineering’s asbestos liability has been channeled to the 524(g) trust, claimants generally cannot pursue CE or ABB entities directly in civil litigation. However, many individuals exposed to CE products were also exposed to asbestos-containing products made by other manufacturers who remain active defendants in litigation or who have established separate trusts. An asbestos attorney can evaluate the full scope of a claimant’s exposure history and identify all applicable trust and litigation avenues.

Summary: Who May Be Eligible and What to Do

If you or a family member worked as a boilermaker, pipefitter, insulator, millwright, Navy or merchant marine veteran, or shipyard worker and received a diagnosis of mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestosis, or another asbestos-related disease, exposure to Combustion Engineering products may support a trust claim.

Key eligibility points:

  • Exposure to CE utility steam generators, industrial boilers, or marine boilers between approximately 1940 and 1982 is documented in trust records
  • Both workers and their surviving family members (in wrongful death cases) may file
  • Claims are filed with the Combustion Engineering 524(g) Asbestos PI Trust, not through civil litigation against CE or ABB
  • Medical documentation of an asbestos-related diagnosis and evidence of CE product exposure are required

Trust claims are subject to statutes of limitations, which vary by state and are typically measured from the date of diagnosis or the date of death. Filing promptly after a diagnosis is received protects a claimant’s legal rights. Consulting an attorney with asbestos trust claim experience is the most reliable way to ensure that all eligible trusts and legal options are identified and pursued within applicable deadlines.