Searching for a Power Supply Vendor
How does a power engineer or a power commodity procurement specialist choose the best power supply vendor for a specific application, when all power supply companies have something to offer? There are several key aspects to matching a power supply vendor with a customer’s specifications:

1. These are the basics - what do you need:

a. Output voltage – 12 Volts? 24 Volts? 48 Volts? 56 Volts? Etc.

b. Current – 20 Amps? 48 Amps? 100 Amps? Etc

c. Power/Watts – 1 kW? 3 kW? 5 kW? 8 kW? Etc.



2. Size comes into play

a. 1U (1.65” X 5”), 2U (3.5” X 5”), 3U (5” X 5”), or . . .

b. Depth? PMI’s standard dimensions are 11” – 15” or 17”



3. What about granularity?
Suppose you have a requirement for 100 kW. What is best for your system?



100	1 kW power supplies?
50	2 kW power supplies?
25	4 kW power supplies?
20	5 kW power supplies?
10	10 kW power supplies?


PMI offers a large variety of configurations that will help you address unit quantity, available space and cost. At times, a unit price may be more expensive at the higher power range. But, the overall system price is significantly less due to the smaller quantity of units required.


4. Do you want to team up with the technical leader?
   Pioneer Magnetics is known as the technical leader. PMI is the largest patent holder for a privately held power supply company. Typical of cutting edge technologies are:
   
   
• Single Wire Current Sharing paralleling
• Power Factor Correction


5. Setting Standards
   Pioneer Magnetics set the dimension standard for the first mass-produced switching power supply. It was in the 1960’s that PMI first produced “The Slot” – a 5” X 8” X 11 ½” switcher.
   
   In order to compete, all of PMI’s competitors had to match the same dimensions.
   
   

   500 Watts	100 A
   1,000 Watts	200 A
   1,500 Watts	300 A

   
   
6. Power Factor Correction
   PMI is known for its industry-leading technologies. One such cutting-edge design is power factor correction (Pfc). It is quite probable that many of PMI’s competitors have no idea that the PFC circuit, which they tout as a significant aspect of their design is really attributed to PMI’s engineering capabilities. Similar to Intel’s Chip Inside slogan on PC’s and laptops, PMI’s PFC chip is inside “millions” of power supplies.
   
   
7. Industry High Power Firsts
   In the same size (5” X 8” X 11”) box, PMI was the first to produce:
   
   

   500 Watts	5V 100 A
   1,000 Watts	5V 200 A
   1,500 Watts	5V 300 A



8. Industry High Power Firsts
   In the same size (3U) 5” X 5” box, PMI was the first to produce:
   
   

   2,000 Watts
   3,000 Watts
   5,000 Watts
   8,000 Watts
   10,000 Watts	Coming Soon

   
   
9. Industry High Power Firsts
   In 2U (17.5” rack mounted) box, PMI is the first to produce:
   
   

   3.5 kW

   10 kW (6 Volt)

   25,000 Watts (liquid cooled)

   30,000 Watts (liquid cooled)

   Standard voltages vary from 32 Volt to 360 Volts

   
   
10. Within the family of 8.1 kW products, PMI is the first to manufacture:
    
    

    8.1 kW	240	3-phase
    8.1 kW	480	3-phase
    8.1 kW	240	Single phase

    
    
11. Field/Demonstrated MTBF
    PMI products tend to see lengthy DMTBF’s:  500,000 to > 3 Million Hours
    
    
12. Hot Plug
    PMI was the first to introduce true hot plug products (1970’s) to the switching power supply industry.



13. Cost Reduction
    PMI was the first power supply company to offer value added and contract manufacturing capabilities as a means to reduce its customer’s costs.
    
    
14. Lasting a Life Time
    Most companies that have been in business as long as PMI (> 50 years) will experience “Unusual Situations.”
    
    Following are some interesting stories:
    
    PMI received a phone call from an irate customer. A product had failed and an in-depth failure analysis was required. An RMA was issued. The unit was returned and quickly analyzed. PMI explained to the customer that the PMI product was over 50 years old.
    
    The product died of old age!
    
    The customer had not realized the age of the product. An apology was offered and accepted and we all had a good laugh.