Power Designs designed and build DC power supplies for electronics laboratory and instrumentation use. Power Designs bench power supplies are appreciated by many electronics hobbyists for their simplicity, repairability, utility and industrial design.

This page is an attempt to compile information about the history and fate of Power Designs Inc based on available information. Much of it comes from crawling through versions of the Powerdesigns.com website on the Internet Archive spanning a decade. The first archived version is from 1997.

Timeline

• 1952
  • Founded in New York state
• 1959
  • First Power Designs Constant Voltage / Constant Current supply.
• 1996
  • Power Designs acquires assets of Variac and Technipower, a manufacturer of military power supplies.
  • Factory relocated from Long Island, NY to Danbury, CT.
• 1997
  • Product Line as of 10/9/1997 (the first date the website is recorded in the Internet archive.
    • Single Output: 1513D, 2100D, 4050D, 5015D, 6010De, 6050D, 5150D
    • Dual Output: TW347D, TW5005D, TW2860D, TW60590D
    • Triple Output: TP340A, TP343B
    • Precision: 2040A, 5020A, 1001A
    • Precision High Voltage: 1K200_, 1K200N, 2K20B, 2K100P, 2K100N, 3K10B, 3K40, 3K75P, 5K75N, 6K20, 10K10
•  2003
  • March 24
    • Last time PowerDesigns.com home page “splash screen” reads “Technipower Systems” a Power Designs Company.
    • Site has a section for PDI Instrumentation that lists three product lines.
      • The LPS line appears to be formed of the final generation of Power Designs single, dual, and triple source supplies.
      • The PCS line includes a high-voltage precision power supply, and the last generation of Power Designs precision, low-ripple, power supplies, which traded the familiar aluminum knobs and metal cases for plastic cases and decade dials. Some of these have been listed on eBay.
      • The MPS line consists of modular high-voltage power supplies with magenta-anodized aluminum heat sinks. i’ve seen this listed on eBay.
  • July 13
    • Site redesign which addresses recent corporate changes
      • “TECHNIPOWER LLC was formed January 1, 2003 following the acquisition of Integrated Power Systems LLC of Corona California by Power Designs (DBA Technipower) of Danbury, Connecticut. This dynamic new organization continues its distinguished 50+ year history of serving the Defense, Aeronautical, Aerospace, and specialty industrial markets.” (press release)
    • Section covering benchtop power supply product line includes some but not all model numbers listed in March. No reference to “Power Designs”
    • HQ in Danbury, CT
• 2004, May 20
  • Power Designs website Website redirects to Technipowerllc.com
  • References to Power Designs removed
  • Technipower laboratory power supply line continues, preserving some Power Designs model numbers
• 2006
  • August
    • Solomon Technologies, Inc. announced that it has completed its acquisition of Technipower LLC, a Danbury, Connecticut-based manufacturer of power supplies and related equipment for the defense, aerospace and commercial sectors.
  • Nov 10
    • Last reference to Technipower lab power supplies.
• 2008 – Power Designs trademark registration expires.
• 2011 Technipower becomes part of Unipower LLC.
• 2014, Dec 8 – Last time powerdesigns.com redirected to Technipower Systems according to the Internet Archive.

Glossary

• Ambitrol: Power Designs’ trademark describing their constant voltage/constant voltage technology
• Robotec: Power Designs’ trademark describing their automatic current-limiting features
• Uniply: TPD Tradename for their seamless, automatic, solid-state tap-switching technology to enable linear regulation across a wide current and voltage range while minimizing dissipative heat generation.