Volex Consumer Products Division Delivers Next Generation Environmentally-Friendly Cable Assemblies

The Volex Consumer Products division has for 33 years supplied power cords for technology devices and appliances, including PCs and peripherals, power tools and gardening tools, home appliances, and electronics goods such as LCD TVs and DVD players. Having shipped a total of over 4.5 billion units, Volex supplies its power cord products to a host of household names including Dell, Apple, Sony, Samsung and Canon in a global power cord market worth over $2bn per annum. Based in Singapore and with a global presence in regions including China, Japan, south-east Asia, India, North America, Latin America and Europe, Volex offers a power product portfolio of over 10,000 products and shipped 210 million units in 2009, with projected double-digit growth for 2010.

Responding to the growing demand from the electronic devices and domestic appliances markets for environmentally-conscious and increasingly safe products, Volex has utilised its research and development expertise to present new cable assemblies solutions including halogen-free and phthalate-free power cords.

Volex’s halogen-free power cords have been designed using environmentally-friendly materials in place of PVC and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), creating a ‘greener’ production process as well as reducing the impact on the environment on disposal. Volex’s halogen-free cables are being readily adopted by global OEMs such as Apple, which has now adopted the power cords for the iMac and MacBook in the USA and a number of Latin American countries.

The Volex-designed phthalate-free power cords have been developed using materials with reduced toxicity specifically for products used by children; protecting against harm if the cables should be chewed or ingested. This product is being adopted by manufacturers such as Microsoft and Nintendo, companies which must ensure that products such as gaming modules aimed at and used by children, are safe.

SL Loh, Volex President Asia and Vice President Consumer Products division, comments, “Volex is enjoying continued success in supplying power cord assemblies into the electronics and domestic appliances markets, and has applied its industry knowledge to answer the demand for environmentally-conscious products. The key to successfully delivering innovation in this way is maintaining our strong working relationship with OEM customers.”

Volex innovates and engineers industry-leading solutions by exploiting its product-design expertise and manufacturing know-how to support electrical devices and appliances in the market. By ensuring its involvement throughout the design, development and manufacturing process, Volex is able to contribute to solving industry issues, such as the environmental concerns surrounding product use and disposal, while bringing products to market faster and more efficiently.

Loh concludes, “With a strong, double-digit growth target for this division of the organisation in 2010, we look forward to further opportunities to develop our power-products offerings, particularly in the arena of ‘green’ engineering, placing Volex at the forefront of cabling innovation.”