Power Supplies
Demand Hype is Being Met by Supply Shortage
Fortsetzung des Artikels von Teil 1
Trend towards modified standard...
The double-digit growth is not limited to companies that are based or have their subsidiary in Germany. From the perspective of an Austrian power supply specialist too, the market is currently developing very positively. Egston primarily serves customers, who require customer-specific solutions. “The advantage is that this customer group actually orders on a very long-term basis,” explains Markus Obritzhauser, Vice President PS & Chargers at Egston, “and therefore, early this year, we already received orders for 2019.” Irrespective of this, he also expresses concern about the situation on the components market: “This applies above all to the semiconductor segment; MOSFETs have been a highly sensitive issue for months!”
Mornsun has been very active on the German market since the establishment of its own subsidiary in October last year. In recent years, the Chinese manufacturer’s growth rates have been between 20 and 30 percent. “We expect that we can also achieve this on the German market,” indicates Christian Werner, Sales & Marketing Manager at Mornsun Power. Since, according to him, the warehouse has been expanded by a factor of three to four, “we are still able to work with delivery times of six to eight weeks.”
Thomas Widel, Vice President Business Operation at Powerbox, which was recently acquired by Cosel, is particularly annoyed in the current market situation at the resurgence of the bad distributor habit of prioritizing: “Today, even the word of a long-term partner can no longer be fully relied upon.” For this reason, Powerbox has started to act very consistently. “When a supplier wants to start talking to us about variable delivery prices, we now automatically put the material in stock,” assures Thomas Widel.
In view of the significant increase in demand, industry is once again occupied with the topic of counterfeiting. This is compounded by the fact that the quality of the counterfeits has now reached a level that makes it difficult to identify them as such during the incoming goods inspection. “After all, there are no investigation teams there,” Karsten Bier states, “and in some cases, it will only become clear over the lifetime of a product how good the counterfeit was.” It might sound like a cliché, but according to those questioned, security is ultimately only offered through distributors, who are supplied directly by the manufacturers.
Uwe Scheumann, Director Sales & Business Development Northern Europe & Middle East at EOS Power, is not aware of any problems with Indian component distributors. “This year, we will have absolutely no problem here. However, if the overall situation in the supply chain does not change in the foreseeable future, we will have to give it some thought in the middle of next year.” Until then, Uwe Scheumann is looking forward to high, single-digit growth worldwide.
The question remains as to what new products the power supply specialists will be presenting at electronica this year. At the present time, only two manufacturers, Recom and EOS Power, were able to clearly name these. Among other things, Recom will present AC/DC converters with 230 and 550 W for the medical electronics sector. Power modules in very flat metal housings offering output currents up to 6 A are also included in the new products. Also new: AC/DC modules with input voltage ranges from 90 to 525 V AC and DC/DC converters with very high insulation of 20 kV DC.
It can be observed at EOS Power that the trend towards modified standard is now also affecting more and more medical technology (medtech) devices. With this in mind, among other things, EOS Power will be presenting at electronica power supplies from 40 to 600 W output power that can be appropriately modified for medtech devices. Medical approval and Class II certification are, of course, standard. According to Jens Egbers, Application Engineer, responsible at EOS Power’s electronica exhibition partner and distributor MEV Elektronik, the decisive factor for successful modification projects is “the appropriate, flexible production structure at the manufacturer.”
- Demand Hype is Being Met by Supply Shortage
- Trend towards modified standard...
