The distributor has strengthened its European team of Power Field Application Engineers (FAEs) with six new recruits who will help to provide applications support to an expanded portfolio of power products and technologies.  Under the new strategy Avnet Abacus customers will have access to a new consultative approach to the power architecture of each application project.

The 16-strong team of FAEs will be located in every major electronics market in Europe to support the Avnet Abacus  novel ‘Best Fit’ approach which looks at all aspects of the  customers design including electrical specification, industry regulations, product usage, shelf life, reliability requirements, cost, availability and potentially second sourcing before recommending a solution.  

The leader of the expanded team of Power FAEs is Cor van Dam, Avnet Abacus Marketing Director, Power.  Van Dam said:  “We can now offer the customer the best fit solution for his or her design, whether that is a power module, a discrete solution or a battery pack.  Our FAEs are kept continually up to date as the power landscape changes, and are able to recommend solutions that adhere to ‘green’ best practice, are cost-effective, reliable and fully encompass regulations such as the EcoDesign and the Energy using Product directives. Many of our suppliers support the 80 plus program offering at least 80% efficiency and a power factor of 0.9 or greater”.

Van Dam also revealed that Avnet Abacus is planning to mark the launch of new strategy with a European road show of power seminars in 2011 supported by presentations from the relevant regulatory authorities as well as its suppliers and Avnet Abacus own FAEs.   “Germany is probably going to be the first country to host one of the power seminars.  That has yet to be confirmed but it is likely to be around the May 2011 time frame.  The road show will then move on to France and UK and other countries later in the year”.

Alex Stapleton, VARTA Microbattery’s distribution manager UK and Ireland, also confirmed that Avnet Abacus’ approach to reducing environmental impact was a key factor in VARTA’s decision to appoint Avnet Abacus as the battery manufacturer’s sole pan-European distributor for its Cell Pac PLUS service, which is a custom battery design service for portable and handheld electronic devices for the industrial, medical and communications markets.

Stapleton said: “VARTA Microbattery has always taken a clear and simple message when discussing any new partnerships to our distributors that if they are prepared to focus on the battery business then our partnership will really flourish.  Many years ago it was Abacus that really met us in that regard and really brought it to the table.  Those ideals have been integrated extremely well into the new and larger Avnet Abacus organization.  For example Avnet Abacus takes responsibility for the take back and recycling/disposal of batteries in all European markets with the exception of Germany”.

“Batteries can generally be divided between primary cells and rechargeable products.  Primary cells contribute a huge percentage to the disposal and landfill problems we face today.  Many applications as a result in the next generations are migrating from primary cells to rechargeable packs to address those issues and to extend the useful life of the battery.  We regularly work with Avnet Abacus on that kind of basis offering this to their customers.  Normally when we look at this the key point to the customer is to reduce the environmental impact of the battery disposal to them.  They want to reduce the associated costs of disposing of those batteries constantly as well as reducing the associated costs of continual battery replacement”.  

The Avnet Abacus power portfolio encompasses modules from major manufacturers including Emerson, Murata Power Solutions, Ericsson, Lineage and Power-One as well as discrete solutions from Power Integrations.   The company also supports standard and custom battery packs and cells from VARTA together with EMI Suppression Filters.

Visit Avnet Abacus at www.avnet-abacus.eu

Visit VARTA Microbattery at www.varta-microbattery.com