What Is An Industrial Power Supply And How Does It Work?

Adam Goldbloom
Created by Adam Goldbloom (User Generated Content*)User Generated Content is not posted by anyone affiliated with, or on behalf of, Playbuzz.com.
On Feb 12, 2019
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What Is An Industrial Power Supply And How Does It Work?



An industrial power supply is different from residential power supply solutions and is typically required to operate industrial machinery. This can include the plant line side AC voltage down to the electronic devices which are used to convert AC to DC voltage. This type of power supply is not just important but there is also a need for the requirements of the application to be understood.

There are a number of power supply configurations available which have made their way into industrial automation like the AC adapter to power a laptop computer or monitor, the benchtop power supply for precision testing as well as DC/DC converters for specialized purposes like providing lower voltages from a bulk supply. However unregulated linear and switching power supplies that are designed for control panel are discussed here because of their widespread use in industries.

An unregulated power supply can be utilized for applications where there is a need for high reliability, low cost, and high current. These are a good choice for interactive applications which don't require tight regulation of the output voltage such as DC motors, indicator lamps, relays, and solenoids. Despite unregulated power supplies being rugged most industrial applications are using linear or switching power supply.

40 years ago the linear power supply was very popular but there are some applications for it even today. If an application requires a large inrush current for starting a DC motor, a large transformer, full wave rectifier, regulator, and large capacitors which are found in these linear supplies it may work great. It is also promoted as a clean DC voltage source with low output voltage ripple and noise. However, in spite of the linear power supplies advantages and the lower costs along with the lower weight and efficiency, it is a distant second choice in industrial power supply applications which is a place where a switching power supply is extremely important.

The switching power supply is perhaps the most popular power supply for industrial applications presently. It is certainly more complicated electronically for converting the AC input voltage into high-frequency low-voltage DC it is smaller and more efficient. Switching power supplies are mostly just 25% of the size of equivalent linear supply but they are more efficient by around 25%. This makes it great for industrial applications to use the switching power supply solutions.

Power supplies regularly have an adjustable output voltage range and also protection against overvoltage. They can sense and automatically adjust the output voltage. While these are great features to have problems can also be encountered by undervoltage especially with circuits of some types. This problem and many other reasons make it a good practice to review the input specifications of the devices being connected to the power supplies. In certain cases, there may be in need of a very clean output which may need to be isolated on a separate power supply completely.

The power output or the wattage is often incorrectly specified and therefore the required DC power for the application should not be guessed. The power output needs to be calculated and therefore it would be a wise choice to list all the devices using the power on a spreadsheet in order to add up the total power required.

When designing and wiring to the power supply it would be a good practice to provide a branch circuit protection to the line side of the power or at least a supplemental fusing on the grounded common leg. In order to isolate problems which may occur separate fuses for the power supply output for digital input devices may also need to be used. It must also be understood that power supplies often have overcurrent protection built-in.

An industrial power supply can challenge even the experts working in this field and therefore it is essential for the professionals to understand how it works especially when they are dealing with harsh environments.








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