Press Officer, Author at Powerstax Ltd

Martin Langmead joins Powerstax as our new Sales Engineer

29 May 2018 by Press Officer

martin langmead

Martin Langmead has had a long and distinguished career designing-in and selling power supplies and has worked for well-known companies such as Powerline, XP, Nu Horizons, UR and Xcel Power. He joins us to focus on growing our UK business, particularly focusing on the switched mode ranges of products.

Chief Executive Officer Tim Worley said, “Since the retirement of Simon Head, we have been seeking an industry specialist to grow our UK sales and I am delighted to welcome Martin to the Powerstax team and am looking forward to working with him. We seem to have managed to work in the industry for 60+ years between us and not worked together, so it’s time to put that right.

Martin will be based in Chester, giving more face to face access for the Midlands and north of the country as we will continue to service the south from our head office in Essex and Design and Sales Office in Sussex.”

Short lead-times for custom or configured AC power supplies from Powerstax

5 February 2018 by Press Officer

Powerstax, one of Europe’s leading value-added and industrial power solutions manufacturers offers clean, reliable AC Power sources from Behlman Electronics with a range covering 1350VA to 120kVA. In the mid-range are the BL-Series with outputs available from 3000VA through 20kVA. The BL-Series has a wide range of standard options making a custom configured power supply simple to specify and quick to deliver, while meeting international safety agency approvals and being CE marked.

Standard options for customising the Belhman BL-Series include; extended output frequency range of 45 – 1000Hz, IEEE-4888 programmable interface, RS232 serial interface, locking potentiometers, motor test option, fixed output voltage, fixed output frequency, 0-300Vac L-N (with additional 7” chassis), 0-135 and 0-270Vac (with additional 7” chassis), ruggedized for harsh environments, mounting bracket and cabinet with castors.

Tim Worley, CEO of Powerstax, comments,”We have worked with Behlman Power for many years and their products are efficient, reliable and simple to use. They have used their long experience to make the most commonly used features available as standard options. Selecting options from their comprehensive list removes the problem of design costs and long lead-times for customization or reconfiguration and takes advantage of the engineering work Behlman have already done.”

The Belhman BL-Series of rugged, reliable and easy to use power supplies are suitable for a wide variety of applications including , avionics and aircraft product testing, aircraft simulator power, industrial product testing, power conversion and facility power.

More Details

Powerstax designs and manufactures an extensive range of standard, value-added and custom AC and DC power solutions for a broad range of fixed and mobile applications including hot-swap front-end AC-DC bulk power, DC-DC converter bricks and modules and programmable, modular, rack mounted power supplies. Their Drake® range of transformer rectifiers offer output currents to 5,000A and output power up to 1000kVA and beyond. Power solutions are available for harsh (marine, offshore, desert) and hazardous (Zone 1 and Zone 2) environments and can be oil, air or water cooled and can be sealed up to IP65 if the environment dictates with purge and pressure systems and heat exchangers incorporated if required

The main markets served by Powerstax include high-end industrial, defence, vehicle and transportation, defence and avionics, impressed current cathodic protection, water treatment, test, measurement and control and medical equipment.

Powerstax Powers Carbon Capture Installation

20 September 2017 by Press Officer

Reduces CO? emissions and produces commercial grade CO? for sale

Powerstax, one of Europe’s leading value-added and industrial power solutions manufacturers has supplied a high power rectifier system to leading waste management company Future Environmental Technologies Ltd., for a carbon capture installation at a factory in Wales. The installation allows the end user to its reduce C0? emissions and store and sell recovered commercial grade C0? for other applications.

“We were approached by Future Environmental Technologies (FET) to discuss a carbon capture application which at the beginning presented us with many unknowns” Comments Tim Worley, CEO of Powerstax. ”At our initial concept meetings we started to determine a specification for the power requirements of the system but output voltage was still not determined as it was dependent on the requirements of the chemistry utilised in the carbon capture cells.”

A pilot design for a rectifier was agreed and the carbon capture technology was proven in a laboratory environment. During trials the optimum voltage was selected for a full production system along with an output current profile based on the number of carbon capture cells that would be required to meet the end customer’s exhaust rate.

FET selected a target company for the project for whom carbon capture had become important to their ethos of reducing climate change. A specification based on the specific requirements of the end user was agreed and provided to Powerstax.

The carbon capture line was to be installed in two shipping containers placed on-site near to the factory’s power station stack. To minimise the amount of heat generated by the Powerstax installation a high efficiency rectifier system was essential. Switched Mode technology was selected as the most efficient and cost effective at the required voltage and power ratings and also offered the required control interface enabling the rectifiers were to be linked to the FEC control system.

The high power required by the application required 6 individual rectifier stacks to be installed in parallel in the upper container. Due to the carbon capture chemistry requiring a low DC operating voltage but very high current, the voltage drop between the rectifiers and the carbon capture cells required careful consideration in the design and an integrated bus-bar was provided by Powerstax to ensure minimum losses at the cells located in the lower container. The final rectifier system delivered 10VDC at 28,000A running from a 3-phase input with <3% output ripple over its operating range.

Worley continues “The trial at the end user site in Wales proved very successful and we are confident that a permanent installation can follow as soon as legislation catches up with the climate change evidence”. This pilot installation clearly demonstrated that FET’s carbon capture technology, powered by Powerstax, can help towards the UK’s drive to reduce CO? emissions and slow climate change. The system also allows the customer to store recovered commercial grade CO? which can be sold/used onsite for other applications.

Drake® range of transformer rectifiers from Powerstax offers output currents to 5,000A and output power up to 1000kVA and beyond. Power solutions are available for harsh (marine, offshore, desert) and hazardous (Zone 1 and Zone 2) environments and can be oil, air or water cooled and can be sealed up to IP65 if the environment dictates with purge and pressure systems and heat exchangers incorporated if required

Simple to customise AC Power Sources at low off-the-shelf prices from Powerstax

13 September 2017 by Press Officer

Powerstax, one of Europe’s leading value-added and industrial power solutions is the UK distributor for Behlman Electronics Inc., known for its leadership in providing power products for industrial and commercial applications as well as military shipboard, airborne and mobile systems.

An options list is now available illustrating how their fifteen BL High-Power Series AC Power Sources/Frequency Converters can be selectively customised in many ways, without the typically high cost of engineering a bespoke power supply.

According to Tim Worley, CEO of Powerstax, “Since a recent cost reduction of the Behlman BL High-Power Series AC Power Sources, the demand for a number of options became more evident. The V and F options, for fixed output voltage and fixed output frequency, became so popular that their cost was also reduced. A chart showing 13 options is now available on each of the BL Series specification sheets to help engineers customise these power sources to better meet their needs.”

Behlman’s BL High-Power Series AC Power Sources supply clean, regulated AC power in a compact design at competitive prices. The BL High-Power Series with Options V and F are available with either single- or three-phase output in a wide range of power, from 1 KVA to 20 KVA. Inputs are any worldwide three-phase mains power with some models available with single-phase input. The BL High-Power Series delivers all the quality features our customers have come to expect from Behlman: clean sine wave output with excellent line and load regulation, high efficiency, and low harmonic distortion. A multi-pulse input transformer offers low-input harmonic distortion and high power factor as required by MIL-STD-1399. Unique protection circuitry provides over-temperature and short-circuit protection, as well as voltage fold-back during overloads, to maintain undistorted waveforms. Line drop compensation, phase angle adjust, output on/off, and 0-10V analogue control come standard.

Options include remote interfaces (RS-232 or IEEE-488) for setting and monitoring a motor test option that has the capability to soft-start motors, pumps and compressors, thereby eliminating the need for higher-power devices. See chart for all options.

Small size, quiet operation, and high efficiency make the BL High-Power Series with options V and F ideal for industrial product testing, precision avionic test and power conversion, ATE, bulk power, and motor generator replacement.

Other models are available with variable voltage and frequency, using ten-turn potentiometers or remote interfaces (Analog, RS-232 or IEEE-488).

Powerstax awarded ISO 9001 on recently combined Manufacturing Facility

28 June 2017 by Press Officer

Powerstax, one of Europe’s leading value-added and industrial power solutions manufacturers has been awarded ISO 9001 on its recently combined manufacturing facility in Wickford, Essex.

The long-term home to the ‘Drake’ brand of power conversion products now also houses production of the Powerstax range of ultra-high efficiency DC:DC converters and front-ends and value-added system assembly. After due process the complete facility is now ISO 9001 approved.

Powerstax acquired Drake power products and their manufacturing facility in in 2012 and the recent relocation of the Powerstax manufacturing completes the planned restructuring of the company to manufacture and support all Powerstax products from this one facility.

Tim Worley, CEO of Powerstax, comments, “When we acquired Drake we knew that eventually all of our manufacturing and support would be best served by being located under one roof. We have now realised this objective and expect that the efficiencies of scale and combining our engineering and commercial teams will bring added benefits to our customers, ensuring we offer them the best possible service from a single location. The same sales and engineering personnel will continue to support customers via our normal channels”