Any SMPS design work in "drinks machine" job?

[ocset]

Hi,
Just got the JD for a electronics job making drinks machines.

proven track record in developing innovative electro mechanical products? Do you want to develop sophisticated products that automate the process of drink and coffee preparation?

Are the power supplies likely to be bought in from China, or they design them themselves?.....what voltage do you think the BLDC motors run at?...what power might they be?

Would the main offline power supply be bought in or custom design?....what power level would it be?

[T3sl4co1l]

I would expect to plop in a MeanWell for most of that, and the real work being stepper and servo drivers.  Even that can be economically replaced with CNC parts, I don't know that they really need any low-level design at all.

Shrug, there's a lot of companies out there that like doing everything themselves.  Tends to be smaller markets with less competition?  There's no money in making the PS yourself, but there's no competition to need to reduce cost for?

Tim

[dmills]

Certainly feels like off the shelf module territory to me, at least outside the very much consumer product end of the market.

For all that people knock Meanwell, I have several thousand PCB mount IRM30 supplies in the field, and they are basically NEVER the problem when kit comes back (I think I have seen TWO duds on our soak test and nothing else).   

I very much doubt that there is anything interesting going on in a coffee machine.

[T3sl4co1l]

People knock MeanWell?

Tim

[floobydust]

There are limits to what a company engineers and manufactures.
Think of Henry Ford owning rubber plantations to make car tires.
Should a vending machine company make resistors, PC boards? No, it's too much scope.

Vending machines use an off-the-shelf solution where ever possible, and focus on developing the automation.
Most of the low voltage 24V load is for small motors for dumping grinds, moving sugar, solenoids for water, MCU and LCD display running, and decorative LED lighting. High power devices are mains-powered, like the heating element and motor for grinding coffee beans.

On a job application I would not accentuate your SMPS experience, that would put them to sleep as the item is procured from a catalogue. Instead present yourself as Mr. Roboto and have passion for automation, robotics and that you are inventive and enjoy coming up with low cost solutions.

Meanwell is high end china and pretty good. But there are many knock-offs to soil their name.
It ain't a Delta or something from Taiwan.

[T3sl4co1l]

Also, a related anecdote...

At the office, we have an in-joke about one prospective project...
Q: "When's [that one customer]?"
A: "Two months..."

Relevant because it was a heated-beverage-related project.  While it was in the pipeline, it was about "two months", but obviously that kept slipping.  I think the customer, not even so much as withdrew, as maybe just went tits-up, for whatever reasons (bankrupt?).  There was never a letter formally declining the project, hence the perpetual joke.

2 weeks/months is also a mimetic timescale for project work.  For example in two weeks, I can do a large schematic design, or complete a full SCH/PCB design, or order assemblies, or...  And in two months, you can expect, say, completion of a small project (fingers crossed and all); or moving from engineering prototypes, through SCH/PCB design, to completed regulatory testing; or completing SCH or PCB of a very complex design, or...

Or more directly applicable, it might be about 2 months for a customer to reach a decision and, if going ahead, review and sign the contract and set up payment and such.

Tim

[coppercone2]

People knock MeanWell?

Tim

they mean well with their emissions

I think of mean well like a house cat staring at a bird outside the window up on a tall 3 story tree making chattering noises thinking of a insane plan to kill it, too many obstacles