5 Factors That Influence the Cost of Power Transformers

The cost of power transformers can be broken down into its most important components. Copper wire is frequently used in transformers and plays a significant role in the price.

Here are deeper details on factors that affect the cost of power transformers.

1. Standard Wire Wire is usually billed by the weight of the copper. For a 50 watt transformer, the weight of the copper does not represent much of the cost. But when the wire includes reinforced insulation, the cost directly reflects the length of the wire. Insulated wire helps keep costs down when it is used for low turn count winds. Costs increase for wire used for a higher current.

2. Production Winding insulated wires must be done with special care to avoid damage. The coil must be made with human precision in order to assure quality and reliability. The work involves soldering, which requires overhead costs.

3. Margin Tape In order to correspond with clearance distances, margin tape is used for each wind. Margin tape applications fall into the overhead category since it's the part of the production process.

4. Large Diameter Costs increase with the size of the wire's diameter. Larger reinforced insulated wire will be more expensive than basic wire. The amount of power the wire handles will also be a major factor in wire cost.

5. Flying Leads Flying leads are another factor in price since they reduce the size of the extended rail bobbins. It adds production costs for additional manual labor, as flying leads must be manually installed into the board. The risks of using flying leads can be polarity failures and less efficiency due to the extra size necessary for flying leads.

Much of the cost of a power transformer is closely related to the manual labor and production it took to build the device. Since copper is scarce, the size of the wire is closely associated with the price.