U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick toured Magna-Power Electronics in Flemington on Thursday, getting a firsthand look at a New Jersey manufacturer playing a role in the country’s hypersonic research capabilities.
Lutnick was joined by U.S. Rep. Tom Kean Jr. (R, 7th District) and senior Magna-Power leadership for the tour, which highlighted the facility’s advanced manufacturing systems and a $17.8 million grant from the U.S. Air Force supporting Magna-Power’s New Jersey-built multi-megawatt ML Series power systems.
As part of the grant, Magna-Power was selected to deliver a 3-megawatt direct current power system for the University of Tennessee Space Institute’s high-enthalpy hypersonic wind tunnel. The facility will be used to qualify thermal protection system materials for vehicles traveling up to Mach 25 — 25 times the speed of sound — and enduring surface temperatures exceeding 2,600 degrees Fahrenheit. It will join only a handful of wind tunnels worldwide capable of true high-enthalpy conditions.
Magna-Power was founded in 1981 as a contract research and development firm in power electronics and magnetics before evolving into a high-power, products-based manufacturer known for modular, configurable DC power processing systems.
The company has built its business around deep vertical integration, bringing operations including magnetics, sheet metal, PCB assembly, cable harnessing, heat-sink fabrication and full-system testing in-house. That structure gives Magna-Power tight control over quality, cost and lead times, allowing the company to offer two-week delivery on many products — fast by industry standards.
All of Magna-Power’s engineering and manufacturing takes place at its 73,500-square-foot Flemington facility, where the company designs current-fed power conversion systems and advanced microprocessor controls for national labs, industry and universities worldwide.
