What are you designing for? Cost.

What does a component really cost over the life of the machine?

The price on the quote is the smallest number in the life of a part. Build hours, panel heat, service calls and end-of-life change orders are the bigger numbers.

Ask a question Walk the design path

Unplanned engineering work across the machine lifecycle, from concept through revision B

Where the cost of a part decision shows up, stage by stage

Millions of cyclesCelduc solid state relays, nothing to wear out

License-freeIMO iSmart, i3 and XGB programming, relay to PLC, one toolchain

Ten-yearavailability commitment behind a Brainboxes board-level part number

100% testedWalther cable assemblies arrive labeled and UL approved

What it costs when it goes wrong

In the builder's terms

A change order at machine 20

An end-of-life notice on a part the whole fleet uses is the most expensive email a program gets. The redesign and the second BOM cost more than the part ever did.

A service call per wear item

A mechanical contact on a heater or a lamp bank is a wear item multiplied by the fleet. Each one is a visit somebody pays for.

Heat the panel has to dump

Every watt lost in a supply or a relay is a watt the enclosure has to get rid of. Figure roughly one to one and a half watts per amp through a solid state relay, and budget for it.

Hours on the floor

A cable built at commissioning and a terminal that needs a torque check are labor on every machine. A cable that arrives with its connector on was tested once, at the shop that built it.

Heat is energy you pay for more than once

The heat a panel makes is electricity that was bought and did no work. After that it keeps costing: in output you cannot use, in parts that age faster, and in cooling.

It starts as loss

A power supply, drive, relay or contact loses some power as it works. Every watt lost ends up as heat inside the enclosure.

Warm copper loses more

Copper resistance rises about 0.4 percent for every degree C. The same current through warmer wiring, bus bars and windings loses more power as heat. A 25 degree rise is about 10 percent more loss in the same conductor. On-resistance in a power MOSFET, the switch inside most switching power supplies, also climbs with temperature, so conduction loss grows as the MOSFET warms. A regulated supply or a drive draws any extra loss from the line, because the output it has to hold does not change.

It heats the neighbors

Every watt of loss raises the air temperature inside the enclosure for everything else on the rail. Power supplies and drives are rated for full output only up to a stated ambient temperature. Above that temperature, the derating curve on the datasheet cuts the load a supply or drive is allowed to carry. A hot panel gets less than the nameplate out of the same part. Heat also ages parts. Aluminum electrolytic capacitors are the usual life-limiting part in a power supply, and the rule of thumb is that capacitor life halves for every 10 degree C rise.

Then you pay to remove it

A filter fan, a heat exchanger or an enclosure air conditioner is added to hold the temperature. Each one draws power of its own and adds a service item, on every machine in the run. An air conditioner runs a compressor and fans, so every watt of heat it moves out of the enclosure adds to the power bill a second time. The air conditioner datasheet lists the cooling capacity against the power it draws.

A part that loses fewer watts helps three ways: less energy drawn, a cooler panel for everything beside it, and less cooling to buy, power and maintain. Add up the watts of loss from the datasheets before the enclosure is sized.

The parts that answer it

Power it. Control it. Prove it.

One part per decision, each with one fact from its own sheet. The brand name opens that product line.

Celduc celpac DIN-rail solid state relay

Power it · Celduc

Celduc solid state relays

The switching part with nothing to wear out, so a high-cycle heater or lamp load stops being a service item.

The printed fact. Single to four phase SSRs in 45 mm okpac and 22.5 mm DIN-rail celpac packages, with SOD and SILD versions that report heater diagnostics.

Celduc at Dynamic Stage 07 on the design path

Power it · Premium PSU

Premium PSU GaN power supplies

Less heat in the panel is less cooling to buy and less to service, on every machine in the run.

The printed fact. Custom AC/DC supplies from 50 W to 60 kW and DC/DC converters from 60 W to 2 kW standard. More watts per inch, less heat to dump.

Premium PSU at Dynamic Stage 06 on the design path

Walther Electric power distribution assembly

Power it · Walther Electric

Walther Electric cable assemblies and power cords

The cord, the drop and the distribution box arrive built, so the crew does not build cables on the floor.

The printed fact. Built to length in Somerset, New Jersey as a UL-listed assembly, labeled and 100% tested.

Walther Electric at Dynamic Stage 01 on the design path

Control it · IMO Automation

IMO Automation smart relays, PLCs and drives

One toolchain from the first machine to the volume build, so the step up from relay to PLC adds no license and no second training course.

The printed fact. License-free programming from iSmart to i3 to XGB, same-day dispatch from US stock, and up to a 5-year warranty on electromechanical components.

IMO Automation at Dynamic Stage 09 on the design path

Control it · GETT

GETT custom front panels and keyboards

The operator interface is specified once and stays buildable for the life of the machine.

The printed fact. Custom front panels and keyboards from a quantity of one, with seven years of form-fit-function availability.

GETT at Dynamic Stage 10 on the design path

Prove it · Brainboxes

Brainboxes Ethernet to serial and board-level switches

Data comes off the machine with the control code untouched, and the part number is still there when machine 50 ships.

The printed fact. A ten-year availability commitment behind the board-level part number. With Ethernet to serial, the software sees the COM port it always did.

Brainboxes at Dynamic Stage 11 on the design path

Prove it · SATEC

SATEC BFM-II branch feeder monitor

One unit meters the branches in place of a meter on each circuit, and channels are added when the machine grows.

The printed fact. Up to 54 single-phase or 18 three-phase circuits from one DIN-rail unit. HACS sensors feed the meter directly, one CT in the chain instead of two.

SATEC at Dynamic Stage 03 on the design path

Conta-Clip PPVK push-in distribution blocks on a DIN rail

Foundation · Conta-Clip

Conta-Clip push-in blocks and KDS cable entry

The parts nobody argues about on the drawing are the ones that set the build hours.

The printed fact. Screw, spring cage, push-in and stud connections on one rail system. The KDS split entry passes a cable with its connector on: one frame in place of a row of glands, IP66, UL Recognized.

Conta-Clip at Dynamic Stage 05 on the design path

Questions engineers ask us

Straight answers on cost and total cost of ownership

What is total cost of ownership for a machine component?

It is the purchase price plus what the part costs to own. Owning a part means the hours to install and wire it, the heat it adds to the panel, the service calls when it wears, and the redesign at end of life. On a machine built more than once, the TCO repeats on every unit and outweighs the purchase price.

When does a solid state relay cost less to own than a contactor?

On a load that cycles often, such as a heater or a lamp bank, where a mechanical contact is a wear item multiplied by the fleet. A solid state relay switches millions of cycles with nothing to wear out. It also has a heat budget: figure roughly one to one and a half watts dissipated per amp conducted. If the panel has no thermal budget left, an electromechanical contactor may be the better part, and we carry those too.

How do I protect a BOM from end-of-life parts?

Pick parts with an availability commitment behind the part number. Brainboxes backs its board-level parts with a ten-year commitment. GETT gives seven years of form-fit-function availability on a custom front panel. It also helps to have a rep who sees the manufacturer's notices before they reach the distributor.

Does buying through a manufacturers' rep cost more?

No. Dynamic is not a distributor. The parts are quoted and sold through the distributor you already buy from; the rep is the manufacturer's engineering presence in the territory, in the room before the spec locks.

What do you need from us to look at cost?

The one-line, the control sequence, the duty cycle on the switched loads and the build quantity. From that an application engineer walks the design path with you and names the part at each stage, with what it costs to guess.

Challenge us

After 30-plus years in the industrial hardware space we know these products, on our line card and off it. Bring us your most stringent or most mundane requirement. If one of our product lines fits, we will show you where. If it does not, we know someone who will. We would be happy to help.

Ask a question Call (408) 780-9190

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Every product line on two pages, in the order a machine gets designed.

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What does a component really cost over the life of the machine?

The short answer