Power supplies from China cut costs considerably

ControlGlobal.com

Keywords: industrial power supplies, industrial power supply, process automation, process safety management, automation engineering, process automation technologies, industrial automation and industrial automation system

Competitive pricing from Asian manufacturers has prompted market growth of power supplies and considerable cost cuts. CONTROL Senior Technical Editor Rich Merritt provides a Product Roundup.

By Rich Merritt, Senior Technical Editor

y son, Rob, lives in New York City. He brought home a purse as a Christmas present for his sister. Although he paid only $40 from a street vendor, it is virtually identical to a $700 purse that is all the rage among rock stars and movie stars. I suspect that when the Chinese factory that makes the purse for the name-brand vendor completed its contract, it kept the production line running to supply all the discount stores, New York City street vendors and other outlets with lower-cost yet identical versions. 

The same is happening with running shoes, designer clothing and, most likely, with industrial power supplies. There’s a good chance the power supply you are considering is made in China so, if you look hard enough, you’ll find the exact same power supply being sold under another name at a fraction of the price by a wholesale outlet or a New York City street vendor. Such are the realities of having products built in China; that is, they build your product on the day shift, and then build it for discount vendors on the night shift. 

Mainland China and Taiwan will produce 3.7 billion power supplies in 2005, according to Global Sources (Hong Kong). This is a 10 percent increase over 2004. The production of switching power supplies (SPS) is expected to reach 900 million units in 2005 and 1.2 billion in 2006. This represents 40% of all SPSes sold worldwide. Mainland China has 2,800 SPS manufacturers, and Global Sources says 200 more companies will start up in 2005.

One immediate effect of this competition is a drop in prices. As you can see in the product roundup that follows, we list power supplies costing $30, $40 and $99.

Not only are the costs of power supplies dropping fast, but the Chinese manufacturers are hip to current equipment trends. “Suppliers are upgrading their production processes to increase their competitiveness in the key European and United States markets,” says Mark Saunderson, publisher of the report. “By 2007, more than 50% of companies will have implemented lead-free production. Many will have started using more environment-friendly raw materials.”

We were unable to find any recent market studies concerning power supplies, surge suppressors, power conditioners and UPSes, probably because the market segment is falling rapidly in the U.S. and Europe as production shifts to China. Market researchers only write glowing reports they can sell, and few companies are willing to fork out $4,000 to read what they already know.

The most recent studies were published in 2002 and 2003. Frost & Sullivan noted in 2002 that “intense competition” (from the Chinese, we presume) was causing price drops in transient voltage surge suppressors and power conditioning markets. Even so, F&S predicts that both markets will enjoy healthy growth rates of 5.7%.

Venture Development predicted a 5.8% increase in power line surge suppressors in the North America market in its 2003 study.

 

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PRODUCT ROUND-UP:
Power Supplies and Controllers
For more information about any of these products, click on the description of the product below to view a longer description and all contact information, including phone numbers, e-mail addresses, websites, and a photo where available.


Fieldbus Power Supply Runs Redundantly
The FPS200 provides isolated and conditioned DC power with built-in surge protection. The module mounts directly onto a standard DIN rail, has duplicated connectors to accept DCS systems cables for Foundation fieldbus segments, and is compatible with all FF devices and systems. It delivers 350 mA per segment for 1-4 redundant fieldbus segments, or eight segments in simplex mode. Hawke International

DC Power Supplies Power Panels
Four regulated 24VDC power supplies provide enough power to drive automation control panels. Models include a single-phase input, 20 A/24 V output power supply, and three-phase input, 10, 20, and 40 A/24 V output power supplies. All are space-efficient, easy to install, use and maintain, and able to handle the type of signal transients commonly found in industrial processes. Weidmuller

Switcher Provides Passive Power Factor Correction