Traftor wins top innovation award in China for its toroidal technology
Power conversion specialist Traftor Technology Ltd has received a prestigious Chinese business award for innovation and entrepreneurship in recognition of the development of its ground-breaking toroidal technology.
Traftor claimed equal second prize in the "˜New energy and energy saving' category in the Shenzen regional heat of the China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition. It was also the only company from the engineering sector to be ranked in the top 10 places.
Traftor manufactures a range of toroidal inductors, chokes and transformers for the power electronics industry, particularly for high-frequency systems and uninterruptible power supply (UPS) applications, and more recently for electric trains and hybrid electric vehicles. Its unique technology can deliver cost reductions of up to 20%.
CEO Jacki Li said: "This a tremendous achievement for Traftor because we were competing against more than 2,700 companies from all over Shenzen, which is China's answer to Silicon Valley.
"It is remarkable for an engineering company like ours to succeed in a competition where the top prizes are nearly always awarded to hi-tech start-ups from the IT, telecoms and biotech industries.
"Winning this award is official recognition of the technical breakthroughs we have made in magnetic topology, a field that has not seen much real progress in 70 years "“ until now.
"We are a relatively young company but have succeeded in recruiting highly talented people from Europe and Asia to build an expert international team that is a continuous force of innovation."
Traftor's technology is based around a toroidal-shaped magnetic core that uses far fewer coil layers than E, EI or C magnetic cores, and also does not have a yoke, creating more room for the winding coil area (LIMB).
This means Traftor is able to design and manufacture magnetic components for medium and high-power applications that are two to three times smaller and lighter than conventional systems, yet which offer higher efficiency, lower electromagnetic interference and reduced noise.
Traftor has perfected a winding process which makes it cost-effective to produce its designs "“ for example, toroidal chokes with 10 parallel 6mm diameter copper wires "“ on an industrial scale. No other manufacturer in the world is currently capable of doing this.
Mr Li added: "Our technology is revolutionary not only in terms of the competitive advantage and added value it offers, but also because it has been industrialized.
"This is why our products are being used by a growing number of customers in the power electronics industry, including major players such as Schneider Electric, Emerson and Eaton."
Traftor's award from the China Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competition includes a cash prize of 400,000 yuan (€57,000) and a grant of 1 million yuan (€140,000) from the Chinese government to aid its expansion and research and development activities.
