The market and applications for wire wound resistors, both globally and in Australia is very diverse. The majority of our range of wire wound resistors are manufactured for industry. Companies manufacturing electronic and electrical products generally have some, or all of the following requirements when specifying and sourcing appropriate wire wound resistors and power resistors for their products:
- Reliability. More often than not the application for a wire wound resistor calls for a significant power handling capability in comparison with the rest of the appliances circuity. As power capacity of a component generally entails heat dissipation it is critical that the manufacturing process of the resistor assembly be reliable, repeatable and measurable. If this is not the case then resistor reliability can be compromised. Heat in an electrical or electronic component can shorten the life of that part and create potential for electrical unreliability. Reliable wire wound resistor manufacture calls for quality in terms of the wire, the winding technique, the termination of the winding onto the resistor terminals, the resistance coating – both in terms of the coating material and the application of the coating, the design of the resistor and finally the testing of the finished product. All of these steps need to be ‘tried and tested’ and meet high standards to ensure a reliable finished resistor.
- Price Competitiveness. This can be a ‘double edged sword’. Whilst most manufacturers are constantly looking to improve their products’ quality and reduce their costs it is important to not fall into the trap of only ‘buying on price’. We have seen many instances over the years of companies looking to buy wire wound resistors from ‘low cost’ overseas manufacturers, only to experience resistor failures at a later stage. Low cost resistor manufacturers often use lower quality materials and less exacting quality manufacturing. An example of this is the way some companies terminate the winding of the resistor assembly onto the terminals of the resistor. Whilst we employ tried and tested welding of the wire onto the terminal assembles, ensuring long term electrical and mechanical connectivity, low cost resistor manufacturers may employ simple ‘crimping’ techniques to terminate the resistance winding. Over time this can lead to intermittent operation of the resistor and even failure of the component. This can be extremely detrimental to an O.E.M’s product reliability and reputation.
- Quality And Traceability. At Australian Resistors, we have followed ISO9002 guidelines for many years. This has lead to an extremely high standard of quality of manufacturing of our resistors and most importantly has meant that our customers have enjoyed high reliability from the resistors that we have supplied to them over many years. Having stringent ‘in house’ testing facilities means that we can guarantee our resistors meat and exceed our customers’ requirements.
- Customisation. Many of our clients require a custom resistor solution for their application. This could include:
- Customer specific power rating for their resistors
- Customer specified termination to make assembly of the resistor into the clients’ equipment quick and easy whilst maintaining reliability
- Custom resistance tolerance
- Custom resistance
- Custom resistor tapping or tappings
By having the in house capability to design resistors specifically to customers requirements we build efficiency and price savings into out clients end products.
Conclusion: Having an Australian based manufacturer of power and wire wound resistors offers huge advantages for our customers. Buying ‘on price’ from low cost countries may seem an option for local manufacturers but real savings and efficiency gains are more than often realised by our customers by utilizing local knowledge and experience to manufacture their resistor needs.
