Australian Resistors – Supplier of Wire Wound Resistors and Power Resistors

Wire Wound Resistor Selection

Selecting the correct wire wound resistor for your application is critical in insuring excellent long term reliability for your circuitry and equipment in which the power resistor is being used. Once you have determined the appropriate power rating for your application, by, for example, using ohms law, you can then select the type of resistor based on these parameters:

Physical size
Required method of mounting the resistor
Electrical pulse handling capability
Requirement of the resistor to be adjustable or fixed in value
Required tolerance of resistance
Mechanical construction of the resistor
Non Inductive winding

As you will see from the products page, we can offer a resistor that […]

January 13th, 2015|Power Resistor, Resistor Applications, Wire Wound Resistors|

Wire Wound Resistor Quality – Not All Resistors Are Equal

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 […]

November 4th, 2014|resistor manufacturer, resistor quality, Wire Wound Resistors|

50 Watt Rheostat

50 Watt Rheostat – High Power Rheostat Example
Rheostats have been used in industry for over 50 years. A rheostat has the electrical characteristics of being able to offer an adjustable resistance specified at time of ordering the rheostat and being able to dissipate significant power – 50 watts in the case of the APR50 rheostat. This is useful in applications such as:

motor control
lighting control
industrial controllers
sound level control
laboratory test setups

Rheostat Specification
Parameters used to specify a rheostat include the following:

Resistance tolerance – typically +- 10% in the case of the APR series rheostats.
Insulation Resistance – Typically 100M ohms at 500 volts d.c.
Rotational […]

October 3rd, 2014|Power Resistor, Resistor Applications, Wire Wound Resistors|

100 Watt Power Resistor Example

100 Watt Resistor Application And Specification
We had a recent enquiry for a power resistor that was to be used in the mining industry for a braking resistor for a conveyor belt system used in a coal loading terminal in Newcastle. The motor requiring the braking resistor was slightly unusual in that it was a d.c. (direct current) motor. The resistor required had the following requirements in its specification:

3.9 ohm resistance
Maximum current rating 4.5 amps (d.c.)

Using basic resistor theory we determined that the most appropriate power rating for the resistor would be found by using the formula Power (dissipated in the resistor) = […]

September 8th, 2014|Applications, Power Resistor, Resistor Applications, Wire Wound Resistors|

200 Watt Power Resistor

200 watt rated power resistors are commonly used in industry in a wide range of applications including:

resistor load banks
dropping resistors in large power supplies
power conversion circuits
braking applications

Tubular power wire wound resistors are often considered to be the ‘standard’ in high power resistors as they offer a ‘tried and tested’ solution and offer high reliability and low cost. The HO Series power resistor is often used when a 200 watt rated resistor is required. This resistor specification includes:

200 watt rating
267 mm ceramic former length
29 mm ceramic former diameter or 33 mm when coated
Mounting feet centres are 292 mm
For the standard fixed power […]

August 11th, 2014|Power Resistor, Resistor Applications, Wire Wound Resistors, wirewound resistor selection|

Wirewound Resistors – Basic Resistor Principles

Understanding Critical Parameters In Resistor Selection – Ohms Law
Going back to college fundamental physics is helpful in understanding the most commonly used parameters used in specifying wirewound and power resistors. Good engineering practice will generally mean that a certain degree of ‘over specifying’ will result in long term reliability and performance of the final product – be it a motor control circuit, power supply, resistor bank, heating or cooling appliances or printed circuit board control circuitry.

Resistance – Ohms Law

Ohms law is possibly the most fundamental equation taught in electrical engineering. It is the foundation principle used to determine the relationship […]

June 17th, 2014|metal clad resistors, Power Resistor, resistor theory, Wire Wound Resistors, wirewound resistor selection|

Wire Wound Resistors – Manufacturing In Australia

The Australian manufacturing industry has gone through significant changes over the last 25 years and the electronics manufacturing sector is no different. In an increasingly competitive, price driven manufacturing world, the Australian electronics industry has followed many other industries looking to reduce costs, to move part or all of their electronic manufacturing overseas, notably to China.

This trend to Chinese based manufacturing started in the mid 1980’s and China was seen as a way of slashing manufacturing costs for some Australian companies. Whilst this trend continued for the next 20 years or so, recently we have witnessed a move back to […]

January 19th, 2014|Wire Wound Resistors|

Wire Wound Resistors Used In Heavy Industry

Wire wound resistors have been used for many years in heavy industry in a huge array of applications where the need to dissipate a large amount of power in a resistive assembly is required. A recent application that required a 200 watt power resistor was in the mining industry where large electric motors used in the drive chain of coal conveyor belts, employed large capacitors that needed to be discharged safely and efficiently and required a suitable wire wound resistor capable of handling significant amounts of electrical energy during their discharge.

Mounting Considerations

The client had advised us that due to the […]

November 1st, 2013|Wire Wound Resistors|