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PULS acquires start-up Wiferion

10. October 2023

PULS has always been at the forefront of innovation in power supply technology. Recently, we have taken the unique opportunity to expand our business with a new technology, which is promising for many of our customers: wireless charging of autonomous guided vehicles and mobile robots.

On 1 October 2023, PULS finalised the acquisition of Wiferion and their wireless charging business and technology. Wiferion becomes our new business unit PULS Wireless, with an operational team in Freiburg (Germany).

This new wireless charging technology will provide unprecedented fleet efficiency, and is maintenance-free, reliable and flexible. It will become an integral part of any automated production, helping companies to increase productivity while reducing their day-to-day costs.

By adding Wiferion’s technology to the already extensive PULS portfolio, we will be able to offer future-proof solutions to the manufacturing and intralogistics industries with our FIEPOS (Field Power Supply) and inductive charging systems which will revolutionise these markets.

“As a pioneer, Wiferion has successfully developed inductive charging to maximise the performance of industrial electric vehicles such as autonomous guided vehicles, autonomous mobile robots and forklifts, and thereby gained the leading market position. With the additional capabilities of PULS, we want to make this system the global market standard and will invest significantly,” says Bernhard Erdl, Managing Director and owner of PULS GmbH.

“PULS employs more than 100 of the best developers in the industry and has global production and sales locations that take our charging technology and scalability to a new level,” enthuses Julian Seume, former CSO of Wiferion, who together with Matthieu Ebert forms the management team of the PULS Wireless Business Unit. “Especially in the area of new product development and application support, we are now in a much stronger position and can offer our customers an even better service.”

About Wiferion
Wiferion is the leading provider of mobile, wireless power solutions for automated guided vehicles (AGVs), autonomous mobile robots (AMRs) and industrial trucks (FFZs).
The flexible and scalable integration of Wiferion products eliminates unnecessary machine downtime and maintenance- and cost-intensive wired charging. Users sustainably increase their utilization and fleet efficiency by up to 32%. Numerous companies in the logistics, industrial and automotive sectors rely on Wiferion’s technology. Wiferion has sold more than 8000 etaLINK systems in over 30 countries.
www.wiferion.com/en

About PULS
PULS develops and manufactures power supplies and supplementary units for industrial applications. Founded by Bernhard Erdl in Munich in 1980, the company currently employs around 1,700 people worldwide. All PULS products are manufactured in the company’s own facilities in Chomutov, Czech Republic, Suzhou, China, and Drebach, Germany. PULS power supplies regularly set benchmarks with their high efficiency values, compact design, durability, and reliability. For users, such outstanding quality means low energy consumption, more space in the cabinet, and high system availability.

New blog post: Analysing backfeeding events

24. June 2023

In our latest blog article you will learn how power supply data can help you to identify backfeeding events and take measures.

Backfeeding is a physical process that is useful in many applications, such as electric vehicles, for the purpose of energy recovery. However, in an industrial setting, backfeeding can be a problem and lead to costly system downtimes if the power supplies fail.

However, even system operators are often not aware of the backfeeding figures in real operating conditions. There is a lack of specific data concerning the frequency and the maximum values. A detailed real-life load profile is helpful when choosing a suitable power supply during the planning phase and when analysing faults in the operating phase.

In our blog article you will learn how you can obtain these data with our FIEPOS field power supplies.

Read the blog article here.

New blog post: What does the MTBF tell you?

23. March 2023

In our latest blog article you will learn what exactly is meant by MTBF, why it is an important quality indicator for power supplies and how it differs from service lifetime.

MTBF is the measure for the reliability of a power supply and can be found in product data sheets. But the value often causes confusion. There are different calculation methods for MTBF and additionally the value is often mixed up with the service lifetime of a device. At PULS, our R&D engineers deal with both parameters – MTBF and lifetime – on a daily basis. In this blog article we make this complex topic easier to understand.

Read the blog article here

PULS wins the “Automation Innovation Award” at the 21st CAIMRS

7. March 2023

On February 24^th, the “2023 China Automation + Digitalization Industry Annual Conference” and the “CAIMRS Annual Awards Ceremony” were successfully held in Suzhou, China. The event attracted hundreds of top industry experts to showcase outstanding achievements in industry digitalisation, to discuss the future of the industry, and to explore smart technology and industrial transformation.

As one of the leading manufacturers in the field of industrial power supplies, PULS was invited to participate in this grand event. With its product family FIEPOS, PULS won the “Automation Innovation Award – Power Distribution Category” in the 21^st CAIMRS Automation and Digitalisation Annual Selection. The award affirms PULS’ technical strength and market recognition in the field of industrial power supplies and serving as an important testimony to PULS’ long-term focus on power supply R&D and innovation.

New blog post: How can the availability of a system be increased?

27. February 2023

In this blog article you will learn the answers to the following questions:

What risk does grid quality and stability pose to system availability?
Why should the power supply unit always be seen as a component of a power supply system?
How can the safety of an overall power supply system be increased?
What influence does system availability have on production costs?

Read the blog article here

New blog post: What is AC Inrush Current? How can it be limited?

15. January 2023

In industrial applications, AC inrush current means a potential risk. It can lead to unexpected down times or even damage expensive manufacturing equipment. Additionally, the AC inrush current must always be taken into account when selecting further components such as relays, switch or circuit breakers.

In our latest Blog article you will learn what AC inrush current is, why it occurs and how risks can be minimized.

Read the blog here

About the PULS blog:

In the PULS blog you will find helpful information and tips on industrial power supplies. Also subscribe to our newsletter to receive regular updates straight to your inbox.

More safety for offshore wind turbines

22. November 2022

With the rise of green energy, it becomes more and more important to ensure robust and durable solutions for power generation, which can work reliably for decades. But offshore wind turbines raise particular challenges for operators and manufacturers. On the high seas the turbines are constantly exposed to harsh environmental conditions. This requires modern monitoring solutions that can measure external influences such as vibrations and structural safety.

In-Situ-WIND project allows early damage detection

As part of the large In-Situ-WIND project the University Siegen develops a monitoring system to detect damages of the grout connections in offshore wind turbines. Two different approaches are being pursued for the system development, based on radar technology on the one hand and vibration technology on the other.

The focus of the research team is on the development of algorithms to compensate for EOC effects (Environmental and Operational Conditions) on the existing damage characteristics. In addition the team is developing new damage detection approaches with indicators that are sensitive to changes in the grout connections, but insensitive to changes in the load and operating conditions of the turbine itself.

A broad database, recorded under real offshore conditions, is eminently important for developing algorithms, which is why the measurement system is already installed in a real wind turbine near Helgoland.

Reliable and fail-safe power supplies

PULS is supporting the project with its robust power supplies, as well as electronic circuit breakers and DC UPS units, which supply the measurement and data acquisition system with energy.

The system design shows that a very high level of reliability and availability is important. The team chose our 480W power supplies with integrated decoupling feature (CP20.241-R1). These units allow the design of a redundant power supply system without the need for an additional redundancy module. Additionally one CP20.241-R1 is connected to a DC UPS unit. The electronic circuit breaker (PISA-B-812-B1) is used to distribute the current within the system.

The team also uses the relay contact provided by the power supply units and the electronic circuit breaker for diagnosis. These are connected to an industrial PC (IPC) which also serves as a data acquisition interface.

PULS is happy to support these important research projects with its products.

In-Situ-WIND contact:

Marcel Wiemann | LinkedIn profile
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter mit akademischem Abschluss
University Siegen

New blog post: How to correctly measure the efficiency of a power supply

5. October 2022

The correct efficiency measurement of switched-mode power supplies is complex. But we at PULS have been dealing with the exact measurement of the efficiency for decades and are available to advise our customers on all questions.

In our latest blog article we share a summary of our experience with you. You will learn why it is worth questioning the manufacturer’s data sheet information and how to measure the efficiency yourself if necessary.

Read the blog here

About the PULS blog:

In the PULS blog you will find helpful information and tips on industrial power supplies. Also subscribe to our newsletter to receive regular updates straight to your inbox.

New blog post: How can power supplies contribute to CO2 reduction?

19. May 2022

The protection of our planet is a big responsibility and every action counts. In the industrial environment, wasting energy can be minimized by using state of the art power supply technology. In our blog post, we show that this also pays off financially for companies in the long term.

Read the blog here

About the PULS blog:

In the PULS blog you will find helpful information and tips on industrial power supply. Also subscribe to our newsletter to receive regular updates straight to your inbox.

Help for people in Ukraine

31. March 2022

That is why Bernhard Erdl, owner of the PULS Group, has decided to match all donations that PULS employees have previously made or will make in the near future. After 2 weeks, this campaign has already raised 9.500€ which go to the same humanitarian aid organizations that our employees donated to. Another 5.500€ were donated to support further aid projects.

In addition, our colleagues in the Czech Republic organized a donation and have provided supplies such as sleeping bags, backpacks, medical supplies, power banks, etc., which have already been delivered to Ukraine. Currently, the help in the Czech Republic is focused on local activities, as many people come without means and are often very tired from the war experiences of the last days. PULS is currently also organizing further measures at its European locations to provide active assistance to the people of Ukraine.

We would like to thank our employees and Bernhard Erdl for their generosity and commitment.

We hope that the suffering in Ukraine will end soon.