【Customized Power Supply】How to Achieve a Cost-Effective Power Supply Design

As we all know, with the increasing demand for consumer products and fierce competition in the industry, all power supply manufacturers continue to focus on reducing product costs. There are many ways to reduce product costs, such as vertical integration of the supply chain, introduction of new materials, introduction of automated production lines, etc. However, while importing automated production lines to improve production management, Asian Power Devices Inc. (APD) also focuses on achieving cost-effective power supply through design optimization.

Customer Value

In addition to other customer handling habits, the possibility of dropping the product while turning on or off its power is high. If the drop distance is too high, the product may lose its effectiveness to the point that the user can no longer use it. As such, these situations must be addressed during the initial stage of design of the power supply product. The International Electro-technical Commission developed the IEC60068-2-32 standard “drop test” to ensure the reliability of a product.

The traditional design practice regarding drop tests is to increase the adhesive of the product in order to fix any drop issues. However, increasing the adhesive will inevitably bring about an increase in cost. We at APD analyze components that are prone to damage in order to improve the design, thus creating a product that can pass the drop test without having to add adhesive, reducing production costs and providing customers with more cost-effective products.

Since our machinery is not continually dispensing adhesive, we save on cost and time while improving production efficiency. However, eliminating excessive adhesive dispensing by no means removes the product’s original amount of adhesive. The products of APD are improved through design, and only then are adhesives added so that the product’s “drop characteristics” are not affected.

Project Implementation

The function of the adhesive in the power supply switch: the fixed component is not damaged, heat dissipation reduces the component’s temperature, and the fixed tilted component ensures a safe, sufficient space between components. Via design optimization APD’s products have been scientifically verified as effective against the common “drop” phenomena.

Phenomenon	Improvement Measures	Test Conditions	Before Improvement	After Improvement
Inductor pin Pad Trace breakage	1. Bobbin adds fulcrum design 2. Pad increases teardrop design 3. Trace increases copper design 4. Improve the process of winding into the cable	1.2M height drop, sampling 3PCS	1PCS damaged	All PASS
Inductive line breakage
Transformer pad detachment	1. Increase the number of transformer pins 2. Change the shape of Pin 3. Pad increases teardrop		1PCS damaged	All PASS
Broken transformer
Breaking of PCB traces,	peel strength test for plates of different manufacturers of the same material, selecting the best sheet		2PCS copper foil cracking	All PASS

The above is the result of experimental data found through the introduction of countermeasures, which also satisfy the drop characteristics and save on overall product cost.

Quality comes first at APD and we strive for customer satisfaction. Without changing the requirements of customers, we are reducing production costs, material costs, and labor costs. Through the improvement of design, we look to stay at the forefront of technological innovation and sustainable operation.