Safety capacitors, a value-added sub-segment of the multi-billion global capacitor industry are used in line voltage electronics to reduce radio frequency interference and to ensure consumer safety from shock and fire. In addition to filtering noise interference from being received in an electrical product or appliance, they are also used ito help prevent the distribution of noise interference.

Additionally, certification is required by manufacturers competing in the safety capacitor market segment to ensure the capacitor’s performance under excessive conditions. Many countries require that safety capacitors be certified to their specific requirements, but most countries rely on the IEC-60384-14 2nd Edition Standard (available through TUV) as well as the all-important UL 1414 standard and the CSA C22.2 Standards that govern safety capacitors. These standards’ stamp of approval allows manufacturers of capacitors to note that their products are “safety certified.”

Summary:
Safety capacitors are a value-added sub-segment of the multi-billion capacitor industry.

• They are used as noise filters.
• They are used to help prevent against customer shock and product fires.
• They must be certified as being tested by TUV, UL and CSA.

X and Y Capacitor Market Sub-Categories:

The general rules of application for safety capacitors are a count of “3” safety capacitors (“1” X and “2” Y) consumed in power supply and “2” Y type capacitors consumed per lighting ballast. This supports a multi-billion piece market for safety capacitors each year.

The majority of safety capacitors actually sold are X1 (impulse tested to 4,000V), X2 (tested to 2,500V), Y1 (tested to 8,000V) and Y2 (tested to 5,000V).

Type X2 and Y2 are the most popular and the type that you will most commonly see protecting line voltage equipment. X2 and Y2 safety capacitors are used in appliances that plug into ordinary household wall outlets, while type X1 and Y1 are for heavy-duty industrial uses.

Summary:

• There are seven sub-components in the typical safety capacitor product portfolio.
• X2 and Y2 are most common found in household appliances.
• X1 and Y1 are rated for operating voltages reserved for industrial environments.

Safety Capacitor Types and Configurations:

Safety capacitors include metallized polypropylene film dielectric and barium titanate ceramic dielectric in radial leaded configurations. Radial leaded ceramic disc capacitors compete directly against plastic film radial leaded capacitors to occupy the board space for safety filtering. The technology direction has moved into surface mount with ceramic chip capacitors now readily available for safety capacitor applications.

Configurations for both film and ceramic safety capacitors are typically radial leaded in design. Surface mount versions of safety capacitors are new and generally multilayered ceramic and these designs are newer and more modern than the traditional radial leaded design, but have a limited supply base Film capacitor safety capacitors are still largely radial leaded in design, and we note only one instance of a film chip capacitor used for a interference suppression application. Competition between the two capacitor types is intense and price sensitivity is apparent.

Competition between film capacitors and ceramic capacitors for use as safety capacitors is intense, and competition should continue to be intense over the next five years. Film capacitors employ either polypropylene, polyester or metallized paper as the active dielectric for safety capacitor application, and ceramics employ typically NPO or X7R composition ceramics.

Summary:

• Polypropylene film and barium titanate ceramic are the most common dielectrics used for safety capacitors.
• The majority of demand for these capacitors is for the older radial leaded configurations (Wrap and fill box-type, or ceramic disc)
• Ceramic capacitor manufacturers are introducing chip type safety capacitors at a faster development rate than film capacitor manufacturers in 2008.

Safety Capacitor Applications in the Market:

Major market segments for safety capacitors continue to be in power supplies and in lighting ballasts with minor market activity in AC power adapter, some automotive DC motor applications and in some smoke detectors As these markets move to China and Southeast Asia there is greater emphasis upon component cost reduction, which in some instances means a movement away from the more stable DC film versions to the lower cost ceramic versions of safety capacitors. Also, the vertical integration of two major power supply manufacturers, C&D Power Electronics Division (purchased by Murata Manufacturing Limited) and Lamda Power Supplies (Purchased by TDK Corporation), suggest greater uses of ceramic safety capacitors in power supplies instead of film going forward.

Summary:

• Safety capacitors are sold to manufacturers if power supplies, lighting ballasts and smoke detectors, as ell as some auto companies (for DC motor).
• Cost reduction is expected to continue. This favors ceramics.
• Vertical integration of two major power supply manufacturers by ceramic capacitor houses (TDK and Murata) also favor ceramics in future designs. (See MarketEye Article on 11.05.2007 “Buy Your Customer and Build a Better Product”)

Market Outlook for Safety Capacitors:

Major markets for safety capacitor consumption continue to grow in Asia, with emphasis upon China, Taiwan, Korea and Japan which are the largest markets, requiring between 400 million and 1 billion pieces (China) of safety capacitor for each country. In Europe, the two large markets remain Germany and Italy (100 to 200 million pieces) and in Mexico (about 100 million pieces).

Industry consolidation continues to play a role in strategy in terms of both safety capacitor production and safety capacitor consumption. On the production side, KEMET Electronics purchased Arcotronics Italia SpA and Evox-Rifa AB, which gave KEMET a commanding presence in the global film type safety capacitor market. This follows after some years of the combination of Roederstein and BCC Components under the Vishay brand, which also gave that company excellent position in safety capacitors.

On the customer side, there has been considerable consolidation in the power supply space, with Delta Products, Inc. and Emerson Electric each buying multiple power supply subsidiaries. Also, in power supplies, both TDK and Murata Manufacturing purchased Lambda and C&D Technologies respectively, thus giving ceramic capacitor manufacturers more say in the design of future power supplies.

In lighting ballasts, the market is less subject to change, with Philips ultimately dominating the industry because of its tremendous global leader ship in ballasts (Advance Transformer and AXA subsidiaries).

Future directions suggest continued unit growth in demand for safety capacitors as more lighting ballasts and power supplies are forecast to be built through 2014. However, a significant portion of the customer base will continue to move to China where bill-of-materials control may warrant increased use of ceramic capacitors instead of the more expensive film solution.

Film capacitor suppressor manufacturers continue to believe that because of quality performance and the perception of quality among the critical design engineers at Philips, Osram, Delta and Emerson that film will continue to be the dielectric of choice for quality suppression. However, price erosion forecasts from these vendors will be at 7% to 10% per year, which is impossible for film capacitor manufacturers to comply with due to their ties to the petroleum industry (for polypropylene and polyester) dielectric.

The limiting factor for growth will be in the lack of sufficient supply of Safety Certified surface mount versions of the popular film capacitors used for X and Y applications. Also, since 2001, a growing portion of demand has been satisfied by new technology in the form of the X2Y attenuator, which is technology licensed by major capacitor vendors (Johanson, Yageo) for displacement of film and radial leaded ceramic capacitors.

Therefore, we conclude that there will be continued price erosion in safety capacitors, continued movement of the customer base for safety capacitors to China, and continued use of ceramic type safety capacitors instead of film type safety capacitors over the next five years. The X2Y attenuator solution continues to gain licensees worldwide, and this integrated technology solution should also grow. In terms of product development we would expect there to be more development of polypropylene film dielectrics for surface mount film capacitor versions of the safety capacitor to compete against the growing number of ceramic capacitor vendors with surface mount safety capacitor solutions.

Summary:

• Ceramics should grow for safety capacitor applications at the expensive of film capacitor types because:
  • Readily available surface mount designs
  • Cost reduction push in major end-markets
  • Purchase of power supply vendors by ceramic capacitor houses
• More innovative safety capacitor solutions such as X2Y attenuator technology that reduces the number of safety capacitors required to meet technical requirements.

For further information see: Safety Capacitors: Global Market Assessment, Analysis and Forecasts: 2007-2014.