Vox Power Debuts Compact 600 W Single-Output AC-DC Supplies

In compact equipment, the power supply usually dictates the cooling strategy rather than the reverse. Choose the part, and you have largely chosen whether the enclosure gets a fan, gets vents, or gives up power.

Vox Power’s EIRE600 series leaves that decision open. The 600 W single-output open frame power supply runs on forced air, natural convection, or conduction through its baseplate—full rated output in the first and last, 450 W in still air—from a 5 × 3-inch open frame just 1.1 inches tall.

The EIRE600 open frame, 5 × 3 inches and 1.1 inches tall. Image used courtesy of Vox Power

Thin Enough for 1U, Cooled Three Ways

At 5 × 3 inches and 1.1 inches tall, the EIRE600 delivers a power density above 36.3 W/in³. It suits designs where vertical space is the constraint, such as 1U rack equipment, slim benchtop instruments, and panel-mount enclosures. That density lets an enclosure use its volume for the equipment’s actual function rather than its power supply.

Conduction cooling treats the baseplate as the heat-exit route. Bolted against a cold plate or the chassis with a thermal interface between them, the supply pushes its losses into that metal rather than into moving air. The trade-off is that the chassis must then absorb and spread them, and Vox Power’s datasheet puts the onus on the designer to verify component temperatures in the end application.

That removes the fan from the thermal path, and with it the most common mechanical failure point in a power system, the acoustic noise that rules fans out of patient-facing medical equipment, and the filters someone must service. It also removes the need for vents, letting a designer close the enclosure against dust and fluid.

The alternatives remain on the same part. Where system airflow already exists, the EIRE600 uses it for the same 600 W. Where no airflow is acceptable, natural convection carries 450 W. The series runs from -40°C to +85°C with derating, at altitudes up to 5,000 m.

Universal Input, Four Outputs, and Where the Losses Go

The platform accepts 85-264 VAC at 50–60 Hz with 0.99 power factor. It is AC-only; unlike several competing open frames, it does not permit a DC rail at the input. Power figures are quoted at 115 VAC, where the full 600 W holds, derating linearly to 420 W at 85 VAC, which is worth factoring into brownout margin.

The EIRE600 holds full output down to 115 VAC, falling to 70% of rated load at 85 VAC. Image used courtesy of Vox Power

Four models cover 12 V at 50 A, 24 V at 25 A, 36 V at 16.7 A, and 48 V at 12.5 A, each trimmable around nominal. The 24 V unit spans 22.4 to 27.1 V, rather than a continuous range across the series.

Efficiency varies by model: 94.7% at 12 V, rising to 96.2% at 36 V and 48 V, with a 95.0% average at 230 VAC. The spread matters. At 600 W, 96% leaves roughly 25 W to dissipate, whereas 93% would leave 45 W, and that is the difference between a fanless 450 W rating and no fanless rating at all.

One Part Number for Industrial and Medical Builds

The series carries IEC 62368-1 and IEC/UL 60601-1 approval on the same hardware, with 2 × MOPP isolation at 4000 VAC input-to-output, a BF-rated output, and Class I and Class II support. For an OEM shipping industrial and medical variants of one product, that means one qualification effort and one line on the BOM instead of two. Reliability is rated at 1.1 failures per million hours under Telcordia SR-332 at 30°C, full load and fan-cooled, with a three-year warranty.

Emissions meet EN 55032 Class B, conducted and radiated, the stricter class, and the one that counts when the supply sits near instrumentation resolving microvolts.

An overview of the EIRE600. Video used courtesy of Vox Power

For integration, the board provides a 5 V/2 A user bias supply and a 12 V/0.5 A auxiliary fan output, sparing designers a second supply for housekeeping electronics and fan drive.

Three control signals handle the rest. Remote sense closes the regulation loop at the load rather than the terminals, canceling cable drop, most useful on the 12 V model where 50 A costs a meaningful fraction of the rail. AC_OK warns the host that mains has failed. With 14 ms of holdup behind it, that buys time to save state and shut down cleanly rather than dropping mid-write. Inhibit switches the output off without cutting mains, dropping draw to 0.2 W from 0.6 W idle.

Vox Power is targeting the series for medical, home healthcare, laboratory, industrial, and small appliance equipment.

Looking Ahead

The EIRE600 ships now through Vox Power’s distribution and representative network. Its wider significance may be where conduction cooling turns up next. Vox Power already builds it into its VCCS and VCCM lines, which are sold on rugged, silent operation. Bringing the same approach to a mainstream open frame suggests the technique is migrating from specialist products toward general-purpose designs, wherever a fan has become a liability rather than a convenience.