Girls Outscore Boys on State Math Tests

Ya. There are a lot of them. Probably all power supplies these days are made in Asia and specifically China. The components themselves had better be brand name. Although you have to keep an eye out the gray market and second hand parts that end up in brand new power supplies.

Even a Chinese board house would go out of business if they started substituting cheap after market parts for good parts.

Trying to maintain quality control is difficult. At my old employer, some of our power supplies were made in Mexico which was terrible for quality at the time. But they were cheap. I don't think that they have improved that much. Sad because I'd much rather give business to Mexico than China.

Anyway, no one wants to pay a lot for a power supply. So, cheap, cheap, cheap.

Hey, one of the things that might gain some interest in the future is power factor correction. And not the text book definition but a front end that can clean up the nasty current spikes caused by rectified loads — remember the bridge rectifier in your example circuit? It doesn't pull a nice clean sinewave of current. It pulls a spike of current for the short duration that the diode is forward biased. Spikes mean harmonics and unbalanced neutral currents which causes the power company to upsize their distribution system. Plus, those extra harmonics are dissipated in the power distribution system in the form of wasted heat and don't do actual work.

One way to reduce energy consumption is to install a PFC at every load or at strategic points or in every power supply that is made.

To be honest with you, I don't know how serious of an issue it is for the power companies. Someone would have to figure it out.

The import/export trade has not been a benefit in quality for the US. We send them our good stuff, and we get back crap. Sure, it makes money for the corps, but overall it is a disaster for our products and systems. The biggest debacle is sending our commodities such as pork/poultry over there, and getting back their crap in return. What a travesty!!!!

I agree.

Penny wise dollar foolish. Labor is cheap in Asia so the cost to build a widget is a less. But what does it cost us in the long run.

And the Chinese don't even play fair and lock US products out of the Chinese market.

One obvious question: why the heck haven't we developed Mexico? And helped Mexico develop their infrastructure.

It would be a win-win for the US and Mexico and might even improve the illegal immigration problem. Maquiladoras have a bad reputation in Mexico but maybe that could be changed. Mexico could follow the models of China, Singapore, .... Asia.

There are huge opportunities and I don't see any down side.

> Logistics is cheaper. They are right next door.
> Mexico is friendly to the US.
> It would help the immigration problem.

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