Sun Transformer New Items
New Equipment Added to Lineup
July 26, 2010 - Sun Transformer recently added two new components to its array of production equipment, increasing product versatility and decreasing production time for PC-mount transformers and mid-size toroids.
One of the new pieces of equipment, an HBR Industries laminator, is used to manufacture one of Sun Transformer's benchmark products.
"The products we make most often with the new laminator are the low-profile transformers that are mounted on printed-circuit assemblies," says Vice President of Operations Angie Calkin.
These parts are most commonly used in electronics applications where vertical space is very limited but a relatively sizable output voltage is still required. Refer to the LPC Transformer page on this site for more information about these types of transformers.
"The biggest advantages that come from having this laminator are the versitility it offers and the quick turnaround time in production," says Calkin. "Our low scrap level from using this laminator has also been very impressive."
The other new piece of equipment, a mid-size Gorman Productor II toroid winder, also benefits electronics applications with limited space.
As with the new laminator, the new winder allows Sun Transformer to build a wide variety of toroids. It also enables building products that are not feasible to be built by hand.
"Some toroids require several hundred turns of wire, which is very challenging to do by hand," says Design Engineer Les Vaughn. "Others require very small-diameter wire, and this winder can handle those types of jobs."
"These kinds of toroids are used for a lot of circuit board assemblies, especially the very small boards that require miniaturized components, so the benefits of having this new winder are many."
Transformers in Popular Culture
May 18, 2010 - Every five or ten years, it happens. We'll be relaxing at home watching television, most likely a science-fiction show, and there it is. In the background, an enormous transformer powering a very sophisticated piece of equipment that's key to the storyline. These transformers are almost exclusively toroids, which consist of a series of coils wrapped around a ring-shaped core.
It happened in the Fox series Sliders, which tells the story of Quinn Mallory, a genius graduate student who has figured out how to open vortices to alternate universes. Needless to say, it takes quite a bit of power to generate a vortex, so Quinn has equipped his basement workshop with a four-foot-diameter toroidal transformer to handle the task. When Quinn powers up the system to create a vortex, the lights flicker upstairs and the vortex magically appears in front of him.
It happened in the series Stargate SG-1, which follows the SG-1 military team as they explore the universe in search of greater knowledge and potential military allies to help defend the Earth. In the season-five episode Ascension, a friendly alien named Orlin stays with SG-1 team member Samantha Carter for a few days while trying to figure out how to get back to his home planet. The solution to his problem is a homemade stargate (that is, an interplanetary portal). Orlin's stargate is, in fact, another toroidal transformer—made from materials ordered online, as well as Carter's toaster. Upon powering up, the five-foot toroid creates a portal in its center, and Orlin is able to jump through the portal to get back home. Don't try this at home!
It also happened just recently on the ABC show Lost (Season 6, Episode 11). The toroids in this episode (yes, more toroids) play a much more sinister role. To evaluate character Desmond Hume's ability to withstand an "electromagnetic event", corporate magnate Charles Widmore has him forcibly placed between two six-foot toroids, to which Widmore applies power. Don't try this at home! Desmond somehow manages to survive the experiment, and Widmore's question is answered. Unfortunately, the viewer's questions are not. (Please excuse the personal commentary.)
For geeky electrical engineers, the episodes with transformers are a lot of fun to discuss. Most discussions inevitably point out why the transformers would not accomplish the tasks shown in the episode. For example, toroidal transformers are remarkably efficient and create less of an exterior magnetic field than traditional laminated transformers, making them a poor choice for their twisted goal in Lost. If the writers for Lost knew this, they must have figured the inaccuracy was worth the cool look of a toroid.
For all the toroids we've built here at Sun Transformer, we've yet to open so much as one portal or interplanetary wormhole. Needless to say, we're so concerned about voltages, frequencies, and customer requirements that we miss the forest for the vortices.
Transformer Requirements Defined...
February 17, 2010 - It started as a simple news story about how potential customers can best determine the necessary requirements for their new electronic transformers. However, it quickly turned into a full-blown treatise on transformer specifications, available lead types, and mounting options—all things Sun Transformer design engineers ask for when speaking with customers, so our hope is that this new page will help you get that much further ahead in the process.
Rather than spelling out all the details here, we'll direct you to our brand new Determining Transformer Requirements page. Take a look around, kick the tires, and enjoy that new-web-page smell.
Also, please feel free to submit your specs or call us about your upcoming projects.
The Secret Life of a Sun Transformer Intern
January 5, 2010 - Nick Freed wrapped up his spring semester at St. Louis University last May. At that point, he had to decide how to spend his summer before returning to school in the Fall.
The options for a young college student are many. Two months backpacking through Europe? Studying abroad at the University of Pimpleton? Sitting at home in pajamas eating pizza and playing video games?
Nick knew a summer internship would be the most beneficial option in the long run. As an aerospace engineering student, he also knew applying one of the many associated engineering fields would help as well. So when he saw the ad for an engineering position at Sun Transformer, Nick felt his stomach tighten and his spirits swell. After throwing away the pizza boxes and taking some antacid, Nick contacted Sun Transformer.
To Nick, aerospace engineering is the perfect combination of all the engineering fields that pique his interest. It encompasses everything from fluid dynamics (an aircraft's movement through air) to chemical engineering (materials used to fuel a rocket). But would an internship at Sun Transformer provide experience in any of the associated engineering fields?
In short, yes it would.
Take, for example, the simple task of getting a cup of coffee for a senior staff member (me). This task incorporates Fluid Dynamics ("Nick, get me some coffee!"), Thermodynamics ("Make sure it's hot, but not too hot."), Materials Engineering, ("Oh, and put it in my favorite mug."), Chemical Engineering ("Remember to use the pink sweetener."), and even Physics ("Whoops, I spilled it in your lap, boss."). I can't be sure, but that last remark seemed just a bit sarcastic.
In truth, Nick (a.k.a. "Nick the Intern") hasn't retrieved so much as one cup of coffee for anyone at the plant. However, he has been very helpful with some important projects. He was our turn-to guy when we purchased a new Watlow F4D Controller, which is used to run test profiles for our environmental chamber. He performed numerous quality assurance tests and helped write procedures for these tests.
As crazy as it sounds, Nick says those QA tests may have been the most enjoyable part of his time at Sun Transformer.
"The QA testing was beneficial because I was sort of the company's promise to the customer that our products would work as advertised."
Nick recently returned to work at Sun Transformer during his Christmas break, and will be leaving us again soon. The Watlow controller is still running environmental tests and the QA tests are still being conducted as designed. Thanks Nick, and best of luck!
Sun Transformer Recertified to ISO 9001:2008
December 3, 2009 - During November of every year, we here at Sun Transformer start feeling a little festive. An excitement fills the air, and workers throughout the plant await the arrival of a special visitor.
Yes, that's right. It's time for a visit from our independent auditor to verify that our quality processes continue to meet ISO standards.
Since 1999, Sun Transformer has been certified every three years to ISO standards. Each May and November we welcome our auditor back for a surveillance visit to ensure that the various aspects of our manufacturing process are being performed properly. This year marks the second straight year that we've met the updated ISO 9001:2008 standard.
I recently visited with Angie Calkin, who serves as Vice President of Operations, to ask her about the importance of meeting ISO standards.
Q: Sun Transformer has met ISO 9001 standards since 1999 and has been recertified every three years since then. Why is this done?
A: We have some customers who either require it or would want to do their own process audits at the plant if we weren't certified. But it's more than that. We have other customers who don't require that we meet ISO standards but still benefit because we do.
Q: How so?
A: When we implemented our quality system, we saw a steady decrease in both customer concerns and customer returns, and that applied to all of our customers because the same process is followed for every product and in every phase of manufacturing.
Q: Have the quality processes helped make Sun Transformer more efficient?
A: The ISO standards are intended to improve overall quality rather than reducing manufacturing time, but we do spend less time correcting production errors so we can factor in that aspect of it.
Q: Are there other benefits?
A: In cases where we submit our products for consideration on large projects, the customer will have a list of standards we must meet before we can be considered. For the most part, we can show the customer that we already meet their requirements—and have for many years—because their requirements are already part of our ISO quality processes.
Next, I spoke with Brad Cross, president of Sun Transformer, to get his thoughts on the whole quality process.
Q: Having recently completed another ISO recertification, what are your thoughts about the importance of this event?
A: The first thing that comes to mind is that it's a real tribute to the diligent work of our Quality Manager Angie Calkin and the rest of the staff who have taken our quality processes very seriously. They've recognized the importance of our quality procedures and the resulting benefits to our customers.
Q: What types of customer benefits have you noticed?
A: One big improvement that we made while implementing this process was pre-testing. Before we start full production on an order, we test two or three units to make sure they meet exact customer specifications. After a unit passes pre-testing, we can produce the full order. That way, we don't complete production on an order then find out we missed a slight detail.
Q: Is this testing done for both electrical and mechanical specs?
A: Yes. Of course, we also perform 100 percent testing on all of our parts after production is complete—and pre-testing really helps decrease the number of errors we find at that point. A huge part of our quality improvement is the longevity and experience of our staff. If you've got people like Randy Kaufman [Senior Test Technician at Sun Transformer], who knows exactly what to expect with each part, they're going to recognize when something isn't quite right, and they make sure the issue is corrected before we ship them out.
The Wide World of Testing
October 28, 2009 - On the 27th of October, Sun Transformer shipped out 200 units of the model ST-1224 transformer. It's a fairly simple design that the company has built for about 18 years. The transformers are used in flight control systems in light jet aircraft. As familiar as company employees are in building these parts, they must still take measures to ensure each part is built according to the buying customer's precise specifications.
But what is the best way to know the shipped units meet these specs?
"100 percent testing," says Test Technician Toni Bowman. "We perform electrical testing on every single transformer before it leaves our plant, regardless of how it will be used in the field.
Senior Test Technician Randy Kaufman adds, "We might have customers who would be okay with having only a sample group tested, like maybe 10 or 20 percent of their order, but our own company standards call for 100 percent testing and that's what we do."
Kaufman has been with Sun Transformer for nearly 15 years, the last ten of which have been spent in testing. In his view, there are multiple benefits to be gained from a thorough testing process.
"It's of the upmost importance to test all units because, by doing that, we know we're delivering functional, reliable products, and we can drastically reduce the number of returns from our customers."
According to Bowman, "The customer is also more satisfied because they know the level of quality that we deliver, and they can be confident that their own products will perform as expected."
Bowman has been involved with testing for seven of her nine years at Sun Transformer, and she conducts electrical testing on a Voltech AT3600 automated tester.
One of the primary tests Bowman performs with the Voltech fixture is a Dielectric Withstand Test, which is designed to stress the transformer far beyond what it will encounter under normal operating conditions. If the transformer can withstand a much higher voltage for a given time, it will be able to function effectively at a normal level.
"The testing process doesn't stop there," says Angie Calkin, Vice President of Operations at Sun Transformer. "We also have to be sure that our products meet the mechanical specifications for each customer. This includes everything from lead placement, colors, and exit locations to dimensional specs."
According to Calkin, it's more likely that a returned part will have mechanical issue rather than electrical, so great care is taken to inspect the transformers down to the smallest detail.
"We have one customer that requires blue tape to be wrapped in a specific way around the transformer coil. I can't tell you the significance of this color to our customer, but I can tell you it's important to them, so we make sure the tape is applied correctly."
