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NEWS August 2008 HindlePower Introduces New 5-Year Standard Warranty!
Lee Iacocca, former CEO of Chrysler, once said that the best way to judge the quality of manufacturer’s product is to take a look at their warranty. At HindlePower, we believe we manufacture the best battery charger products available in the industry. Following Mr. Iacocca’s logic, extending the warranty to five years allows us to instill this confidence in our products to our valued customers. Supplied is a link to an e-file copy of our new 5-Year Standard Warranty document (JF5001-00), which will be shipping with all new HindlePower-branded battery charger products, beginning next month. Please contact us at 610.330.9000 if you have any questions. Thank you for your continued support.
Best regards,
NEWS July 2008 Teaming
With The Best! HindlePower believes in providing the best battery charger products and services available in the industry. To back this belief, we have put into practice this list of standards we call "Teaming with the Best." The idea here was to provide a clear and concise list of benefits describing the many advantages of teaming with HindlePower. "Teaming with the Best" is our written commitment to you. It is who we are and what we do. It is part of our culture. We strive to meet or exceed these standards everyday. We appreciate your support and welcome your comments on how we can become even better. Standards can you expect when Teaming with HindlePower...
When Teaming With HindlePower, you can be assured of never having to question the level of quality, commitment and overall customer satisfaction that we will provide.
NEWS June 2008 An Update on HindlePower 3rd Party Certifications The quagmire associated with 3rd party certifications can be very confusing. Many people are in doubt about what it really means to test a product and provide a 3rd party certification. Most Americans will request a UL listing without realizing that UL is an independent private company formed to provide fire safety standards for products manufactured in the United States. UL is not a government agency and has no official powers to regulate product merchantability, nor is it a preferred resource by OSHA. As of this writing, OSHA is an agency of the US Government is tasked with certifying independent testing laboratories in the USA for the purpose of providing 3rd party certifications. OSHA currently lists 17 laboratories as NRTL (NRTL – National Recognized Testing Laboratory). You may see the current list of NRTLs at http://www.osha.gov/dts/otpca/nrtl. The NRTL Program recognizes private sector organizations as NRTLs, and recognition signifies that an organization has met the necessary qualifications specified in the regulations for the program. The NRTL determines that specific equipment and materials ("products") meet consensus-based standards of safety to provide the assurance, required by OSHA, and that these products are safe for use. For many years HindlePower has used both CSA and UL for its safety testing. In recent times we have found said use to be redundant and since most of our safety testing has been performed through CSA, we have decided to drop any past and future testing with UL. This is a difficult, but no less important decision. CSA is also a participant in OSHA’s “Cooperative Arrangement between the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Standards Council of Canada (SCC)”. This allows us to use a single point firm to provide both our Canadian and US domestic 3rd party certification thereby eliminating any duplication. While we understand that certain customers who specifically request a “UL Listing” may find this decision disappointing, we have no intention of reducing the quality or safety of our products by this decision. Further, we are fully ensuring that our products meet the demands of the USA by maintaining an OSHA required association with a bona-fide NRTL. The current CSA-NRTL/C labeling of our products to UL1012/1564 is fully endorsed by OSHA and the NRTL program whether performed by UL or any other OSHA NRTL.
NEWS January 2008 AT
Series And SCR/SCRF Series The AT Series and SCR/SCRF Series industrial battery chargers and have a lot in common. While it is true they have different names, and the AT Series is a newer design, it is important to understand the similarities so we can truly illustrate the differences. Both product lines are of Silicon-Controlled Rectifier (SCR) design! Even though we call the SCR/SCRF Series the "SCR/SCRF" and the AT Series the "AT", it is important to note that the term "AT" stands for "Advanced Technology" SCR design. The AT Series is the natural progression for the SCR technology product. It was HITRAN Power Systems that bore the concept of using SCR technology in the mid 1970s as a utility charger technique. At that time, the paradigm was to use either magnetic-amplified techniques or ferro-resonant techniques. Those techniques, not unlike SCR, are just merely different ways of controlling output current. We selected the Silicon-Controlled Rectifier ( SCR) because we saw it as the future for lower cost and more flexibility. And, we were right. Today, every competitor that HindlePower faces is now offering their mimic version of the HindlePower SCR-based battery chargers as an alternative to either ferro or mag-amp designs in their product lines. They have waited as long as 30 years, only to enter the market recently. Since the SCR/SCRF Series products were first introduced by HindlePower (then HITRAN Power Systems) in the mid 1970s, many improvements and advances have become available. Fortunately, we still have many customers who prefer the traditional SCR/SCRF Series design, and rightfully so. The product is a well-made device, with extensive attention to detail. The SCR/SCRF Series product line has a unique distinction of being able to accommodate a wide range of options, inputs, outputs and add-ons, not easily accommodated by the newer AT series product. In contrast, the AT Series products offer a customer a unique blend of common desired options at a cost and lead time of manufacturing far lower than its SCR/SCRF Series predecessor. Additionally, we were able to add in safety features, safety shields, switchboard wire, on-line adjustments, standard breakers, and UL & CSA-NRTL/C listings, while keeping the selling price low and the delivery time short. Perhaps the biggest advantage of using AT Series technology is ease of operation. The first AT10 battery charger (1PH 6-25 Adc) was introduced at a time when there was a tremendous resistance to electronic controls. Most industry experience up to that point with these controls was not good. Electronic, microprocessor controls were difficult to use, required secret codes, and possessed hidden menus that could confound the most knowledgeable operator. Sadly, much of that is still true today. We wanted to create a product that had all the benefits of microprocessor control, while maintaining the ease of use of an analog device. The AT Series, which is the ultimate incarnation of the original AT10 design, is a true success story in this regard. The AT10.1 Group I, AT10.1 Group II and AT30 Series battery chargers are extremely easy to use and to understand, very much mimicking the analog type product in its operation. Its display requires no interpretation, has no hidden menus, and does not require any secret codes to operate. Even security is accomplished using a jumper on the inside of the front panel. AT Series Standard Features The following options and features are includes on all AT10.1 and AT30 Series battery chargers. A wide range of other customer-desired options are also available.
To answer your questions or to comment about the use of either the AT Series or SCR Series products from HindlePower, please call on us directly.
NEWS December 2007 Happy Holidays!
HindlePower wishes you and your family a very Happy Holiday and a joyous and prosperous new year!
NEWS November 2007 HindlePower Service Instruction Update As we continue to expand the downloadable content of the HindlePower web site, friendly navigation through the pages and links becomes a greater concern to our staff. After uploading several new and revised Service Instructions, we realized this page has grown since it's first posting and needed some improvement. We have now divided the page into four sections (General Subject, AT10.1/AT30 Series, SCR/SCRF Series, and Coming Soon. User's now are offered a more focused view of the available service instructions they may be searching for. Feel free to browse the Service Instructions page in the Support section of our web site. Here you will find a number of helpful documents to aid in the service of HindlePower manufactured battery chargers. Please note that all of these service instructions are in fact unbranded. Therefore, whether you are a battery manufacturer which purchases our private-labeled products, an OEM which repackages our manufactured units into larger systems, a direct distributor of HindlePower branded product, or an end-user in the field, you can freely download and use these service instructions 24-hours a day, seven days a week. Please note that we are always in the process of updating, creating proper PDF files, and posting online new service instructions and legacy documentation pertaining to existing products. If you require an e-file of any of the service instructions listed in the Coming Soon section, or would like a new one created for a field service that we have not yet addressed, please contact Michael C. Rupprecht at 610.330.9000, ext. 218.
NEWS October 2007 HindlePower At Power-Gen '07
HindlePower, Inc. will be exhibiting at this year's Power-Gen in New Orleans, LA from December 11-13. We will be one of 1,100 exhibiting companies displaying the latest in power products and technologies. At this show we will feature our new and exciting DC Power Console system, a modular, integrated solution for batteries, chargers and dc distribution, intended for indoor and outdoor applications. Stop by our booth (#541) to meet us, discover who we are, and see all of our latest products.
NEWS July 2007 Formal HindlePower Technical Training & Certification Program Available
There is no cost for training done at our facility*, and we provide you with lunch for this two-day informative event. Although guests are responsible for their own travel expenses, we take care of the rest. Training classes are provided periodically throughout the year. Please contact our QA Manager Nicholas Dzomic, or our Sales & Marketing Coordinator Deborah Behler to schedule your technical training. Dates are available in Oct. & Nov. of 2007. *Contact Nicholas Dzomic for cost and scheduling of training at your facility.
NEWS May 2007 AT
Series Battery Charger Feature Overview - Remote Sensing I recently made a sales call, when the customer remarked, "Wouldn't it be terrific if my battery charger would actually read voltage at the battery terminals and correct for the voltage drop between the charger and battery?" The great news is that AT Series Battery Chargers already do that. All AT10.1 Group I, Group II and AT30 Series Battery Charger are equipped with a Remote Sensing feature. This is a key selling point for the AT Series products, and was designed into the original AT10 Battery Charger back in 1996. Where most users must measure voltage at the battery terminals to ensure proper float and equalize voltage settings, users of the AT Series do not have to do that.
Advantages of Using AT Series Remote Sense:
For a greater explanation of this feature, see Section 1.9 in any of the three (3) AT Series Operating and Service Instructions. We plan to post more AT Series Battery Charger Feature Overviews in the months to come. Visit us again soon! Art
Salander
NEWS March 2007 HindlePower at 11th Annual Battcon®
If you are planning on attending
BATTCON®
2007, please stop by our booth to say hello. We look forward to seeing you in
Tampa. Tap Into the Energy!
NEWS February 2007 AT30 Documentation Update
In addition to the sales brochure, we have also revised the HindlePower AT30 Operating and Service Instruction Manual (JA5011-03). This new revision contains important notes about external ac and dc power cabling, three error codes specific to the AT30, an enhanced trouble-shooting table, a clearer replacement parts table, and finally...updated standard drawings. Full size (11"x17") PDF files of these new AT30 standard drawings can be downloaded in their entirety from our support section. HindlePower strives to provide our customers with all tools available to make your experience with our products a pleasant one. Concise and accurate documentation is part of that.
NEWS January 2007 Happy New Year! We are pleased to announce the newest addition to our staff, Yvonne K. Johnson-Milligan. Yvonne will be working with Janet Dougherty, joining our customer service staff. Yvonne has 25 years experience working with professionals and customers in the secretarial field. Her extensive background includes employment at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Yvonne will also be greeting visitors to our facility and can be reached by phone by dialing (0) when calling our main number 610.330.9000. She can also be reached on extension 210. Janet can still be reached on extension 219 to assist your customer service needs.
There is no cost for this training, and we provide you with lunch for this two-day informative event.
Although guests are responsible for their own travel expenses, we take care of the rest.
Training classes are provided periodically throughout the year. To further discuss and/or schedule your training, please contact our Director of Sales and Marketing
Gary
Guagliardi
at 610.330.9000, ext.
223.
We look forward to your visit, meeting our customers, and helping you better understand HindlePower battery charger and dc power supply products.
NEWS December 2006 Happy Holidays!
When we return, HindlePower will again be ready to provide you with our famous customer service. Our newly augmented sales and engineering staffs will be charging into 2007, which appears to be HindlePower's most promising year to date. We sincerely believe that this is a necessary step in continuing our World Class service to you. We wish you and your family a very Happy Holiday and a joyous and prosperous new year!
NEWS November 2006 New Chief Engineer Takes Charge We are pleased to announce the addition of Bob Beck to our staff. Bob joins HindlePower as Chief Electrical Engineer, working in cooperation with our VP of Technology, William Bennett. We are very excited about the experience and expertise Bob brings to HindlePower, including control design and development. Bob holds a BS in Electrical Engineering. His extensive background includes 13 years of experience designing products used by the electrical utility industry for substation applications. Bob’s ongoing responsibilities include researching new products and technology, maintaining and enhancing control hardware, upgrading existing products with new features, and supervising the AT Series Communication protocols. After only one week on the job, Bob has begun visiting customers and learning about current and future applications. We are very excited about Bob joining our staff, acquiring a position as Chief Engineer that will surely assist HindlePower in its charge into the future and commitment to excellence. Bob can be reached via e-mail and by phone at 610.330.900 ext. 322. Please join us in welcoming him!
NEWS November 2006 Custom Battery Charger Drawing Transmittals Go Paperless HindlePower has and will continue to embrace new technologies and progressive business practices.
Therefore, in an effort to improve the timely and accurate processing of custom
approval/record drawings and documentation for its line of industrial battery chargers, HindlePower announces the implementation of its exclusive e-file transmittal program.
NEWS October 2006 Art Salander Joins HindlePower Team HindlePower is pleased to introduce our newest employee, Art Salander. Art will be teaming with our talented sales staff, Gary Guagliardi (Director of Sales and Marketing) and Deborah Behler (Sales and Marketing Coordinator). While his talents will help with the typical application needs of our daily business, we are going to rely on Art to work on more difficult application scenarios, pursue systems-related business, and lead the development of new business by inspiring new products for new markets. Art's position at HindlePower is Business Development, Applications Engineering. Business Development, Applications Engineering is a new position for HindlePower, however Art is no stranger to HindlePower or our business. Art returns to HindlePower with his extensive repertoire of experience with regard to battery chargers and a thorough knowledge of batteries, UPS systems, switchgear, distribution and related products and controls. Art has both the educational and practical background to bring many more successes to HindlePower. He is a graduate of Island Technical Institute's, Basic and Advanced Electronics Studies, holds a BA with majors in Physics and Engineering from, Adelphi University and has completed post graduate work at the New York Institute of Technology. Art is a member of the IEEE, has been a guest speaker within the industry on two occasions at BATTCON®, and was a former active participant in the BCI Battery Charger Committee.
Art
Salander
NEWS September 2006 HindlePower Sales, Marketing & Customer Service Expansion It is with great enthusiasm that we announce the new responsibilities for one of HindlePower's shining stars Deborah Behler. Debbie, who was voted 2002 Employee of the Year by the entire HindlePower staff, will now be working along side Gary Guagliardi as our new Sales and Marketing Coordinator. For those of you that have not had the privilege of meeting Debbie, she may be in your area soon. Debbie will also begin aiding Gary in representing the front-end of our organization, by traveling to visit our existing customers and greeting new ones. In addition to her new responsibilities, Debbie will continue to oversee the Customer Service Department. Rest assured that you will never have to question the level of quality, commitment, and overall customer satisfaction that she and the entire HindlePower Sales Team have long stood for. Debbie can be reached via e-mail and by phone at ext. 228. Effective immediately, if you have any customer service questions, please contact Janet Dougherty at her new extension 219. Janet has been with HindlePower for two years and is fully qualified to assist you with your everyday customer service needs. We are excited about these changes and are eager to work closely with your company to anticipate and respond to all your needs, filling in the gaps and smoothing out the rough edges. Thank you for your continued support.
NEWS July 2006 Growing HindlePower Posts Employment Opportunities & Operational Guidelines Online
More and more, as we achieve new successes brought about by the hard work we have put into our company over the past several years, the benefits of our unique culture are affirmed. Who we are and how we work has become a superb selling point to our customers, almost as important as our product quality and unrivaled customer service. To round out the About Us section of our web site, we have also posted our Operational Guidelines, authored by our President William A. Hindle.
NEWS June 2006 HindlePower Committed To Open Communication Current changes in our industry have opened up several new business opportunities for us, and we are as excited as ever about our future. We would like to welcome new customers who may be unfamiliar with how HindlePower prefers to do business. To our existing customers, we wish to reaffirm our commitment to you, with both quality product and outstanding customer service. Every great relationship requires open and constant communication. Of course we love when you call and tell us what you enjoy about our products and our company. HindlePower would also like to hear about your problems, concerns and suggestions.
Another area of our business where good communication benefits all is the value-added category. If you have an idea or suggestion that you think would add value to our product...we want to hear about it. Please contact our sales team at sales@hindlepowerinc.com or engineering at engineering@hindlepowerinc.com. In closing, we have received many inquiries about the 3rd party agency approvals for our AT Series microprocessor-controlled battery charger lines. This information is always available on our Product Specifications page. Our CSA-NRTL/C and Seismic Zone 4 approvals for the AT30 product line apply only to the following models: 12/24/48/130 Vdc @ 25-200 Adc and 12/24/48 Vdc @ 250-300 Adc. We have recently expanded our self-certification CE listing, to our AT10.1 Group I product line and certain models of the AT30 product line. Please feel free to download our online document (JF5039-00) for a record clearly itemizing all these approvals.
NEWS May 2006 HindlePower Charger Documentation Update
Some of our customers have asked us whether or not they have the most up-to-date documentation for the wide variety of HindlePower battery charger products. This request prompted us to post a document update history in our standard documentation section. Although launched in May of 2004, we dug into our engineering archives, and posted updates back to the beginning of that year. If you have had an e-file (Adobe Acrobat PDF) of a HindlePower document on file for some time, you may want to browse this page and see if it needs replacing. HindlePower strives to provide our customers with all tools available to make your experience with our products a pleasant one. Concise and accurate documentation is part of that.
NEWS April 2006 HindlePower On-Time Delivery Rates At Record Levels If you are concerned about getting your battery charger orders shipped on time...rest easy. HindlePower's on-time delivery rate is currently running at 96%. Our orders ship at an average of -4 days late. No, that is NOT a misprint. We average minus four days late, or to say it another way, we are averaging four days early on our scheduled ship dates! During a rare occurrence when an order may not ship on time, HindlePower will take an honest, proactive stance. We contact our customers first, about potential delays, while doing everything within our (excuse the pun) POWER to meet scheduled delivery dates. HindlePower is keenly aware that industry expectations for suppliers have changed, perhaps permanently, due to natural disasters, deregulation and tight budgets. Rather than fall behind to competition, we have lead the way by changing the way we operate to meet these new challenges. Short lead times on new orders, and moreover, timely delivery of battery charger products on site is of vital importance to the critical start-up procedures required by our customers. HindlePower is dedicated to maintaining our unprecedented level of on-time delivery. So sleep well, your charger will get there...and on time!
NEWS March 2006 Formal HindlePower Sales Training Program Available
There is no cost for this training, and we provide you with lunch for this two-day informative event. Although guests are responsible for their own travel expenses, we take care of the rest. Training classes are provided periodically throughout the year. To further discuss and/or schedule your training, please contact our Director of Sales and Marketing Gary Guagliardi at 610.330.9000 - ext. 223. We look forward to your visit, meeting our customers, and helping you better understand HindlePower battery charger and dc power supply products.
Further HindlePower updates available in Archived NEWS ! You are
visitor number
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HindlePower
values our customers and their ongoing needs. We take pride in our
determination to provide them with phenomenal customer service and
quality products. In keeping with a long tradition, we would like
to inform you that our office and plant will be closed during the
Christmas holiday week from December 24 until January 1. We will
reopen on Wednesday January 2, 2007. During this time, our staff
will have the chance to rest, re-energize and spend quality time with
their families.
In
an effort to better assist your product technicians, our staff now
offersformal HindlePower Battery Charger
Technical Training & Certification. This training is best
done here at our facility but if you prefer, we are readily available to
perform training at your facility*. Training sessions cover product
line introduction, charger theory, the start-up process, troubleshooting,
and much more. A good portion of this program is dedicated to �hands
on� training. We conclude the program with a final exam and
Certification. Students who successfully complete this course will
be recognized as �Certified HindlePower Battery Charger
Technicians.� 
Using
the Remote Sensing feature is easy. There are two (2) positive and
negative stud terminals located on every AT Series I/O panel, used
exclusively for Remote Sense. Just move the charger's two (2)
internal sense leads from the normal dc output terminals (TB1+/-) to the
Remote Sense terminals. Wire #s vary from product line.
Next, run a user-supplied twisted pair of wire to the battery terminals
and... viola (excuse my French)! You are monitoring
battery terminal voltage, and compensating for it as well. See
figure to right.
Back in March, we announced our
HindlePower
values our customers and their ongoing needs. We take pride in our
determination to provide them with phenomenal customer service and
quality products. In keeping with a long tradition, we would like
to inform you that our office and plant will be closed during the
Christmas holiday week from December 26 until January 1. We will
reopen on Tuesday January 2, 2007. During this time, our staff
will have the chance to rest, re-energize and spend quality time with
their families.
We understand this new process may not be acceptable to all documentation recipients. Therefore if any of our customers and/or end-users insist paper hardcopies be mailed to them, we will continue to do so on an
job-by-job basis, when specifically requested on purchase orders. All new e-file transmittals will specifically note that paper hardcopies of supplied documentation are in fact available if required.
The elimination of shipment of paper hardcopies will free our engineering staff from clerical work so they can concentrate their efforts on delivering further documentation ahead of schedule.
Our friend
Dave Scroggins at Alcad Standby Batteries recently helped us discover a
minor flaw on the HindlePower web site. It seems he was looking
for service instructions on how to replace the AT Series main control pc
board for a unit in the field. After reviewing this request, we
saw that our current document was out-of-date, due to the new
AT10.1/AT30 product configurations. We followed up his request by
creating a new service instruction (
Feel free
to browse the 
In an
effort to better assist our customers in their sales efforts, our staff
now offers formal HindlePower Battery Charger orientation and sales
training here at our facility. Training sessions cover product
line introduction, product applications, customer specification and
quotation review, pricing exercises (using our versatile pricing
estimator program), hands-on product training, and a competitive
analysis. Our hand-out materials include a product sales handbook,
an engineering technical binder, and a pricing module on CD-ROM.
