Become an OEM Partner

Morningstar has a strong track record of success in working with OEM Partners that use our components and products in the following ways:

1. Sub-components & circuitry—assemblies that are integrated into customers’ systems.
2. Complete component products:
   a. Off-the-shelf Morningstar products—standard catalog offering with no changes or modifications, which become an internal part of a customers’ systems sold under their brand. 
   b. Modified Morningstar products, with software and/or circuitry changes, to meet special requirements.
3. Re-branded/re-skinned component products: Morningstar products to be sold under a customers’ brand.  This could be anything from simple re-badging to a re-engineered product with new I.D. based on an existing one
4. Complete systems:  Morningstar “systemizing” for a customer, providing a potentially co-branded (“powered by Morningstar”) or re-branded powering solution. 

Morningstar has gained and shared valuable experience working with a variety of OEM Partners over several decades to help them provide quality products and solutions that meet safety and other industrial and commercial certification standards.  Moreover, Morningstar shares a very strong partnership with TÜV Rheinland, a safety testing and certification services provider that is recognized worldwide for its excellence and ability to keep pace with changes in solar, electrical, manufacturing and other industries.  This relationship has helped Morningstar and its OEM Partners comply with all quality and safety standards to the intended markets and decrease overall time to market.  This relationship is a major benefit that should not be glossed over, and we urge you to read more about it in the Morningstar and TÜV Rheinland case study.

Trust your reputation to our reputation

Morningstar has the highest hardware reliability rate in the industry: better than 99.9%!  In fact, we’re the only manufacturer in the solar industry willing to publish that specification.  Making Morningstar the heart of your energy system needs is the best way to ensure maximum reliability in your end-products 

Morningstar’s development capabilities include:

	Testing— our laboratory facilities include in-house EMI (electromagnetic interference) chamber testing and Environmental Chamber testing
	In-house advanced prototyping capabilities, from enclosures to circuit boards
	Full-thermal modeling tools including 3D CAD Software for mechanical & thermal design and product simulation
	Fully-automated ISO 9001 manufacturing capabilities, with 100% functional testing using computerized equipment and processes

Expertise and Support We Offer Our Partners

	Optimal Battery Management – Development of manufacturer specific battery charging profiles for consistent programming into our line of charge controllers.  Ensure your chosen battery integrates seamlessly into the system and is charged in an ideal manner to maximize capacity and longevity.  This includes a customized multi-stage charging profile specific to your model and chemistry, optimized temperature compensation and deep discharge protection.
	Direct Battery Communication Option – Optional integrated CANBUS link for direct battery management and data communication with the BMS for a variety of industry leading manufacturers and protocols.
	System enclosure heating analysis and optimization.  We’ll help quantify the heat produced by components in your system, ensure proper heat egress from the enclosure, configure the charge system for maximum operating efficiency (to minimize heat) and ensure a reliable and wide operating temperature for your entire system suitable for a variety of climates.  We give you the design support to deploy your system as configured into the environment you need it to perform in with confidence.
	Control and Integration – Morningstar’s products support industry standard communication protocols to enable external control and for data to be shared between devices at the site.  We can work with you to ingrate energy system information with 3rd party site equipment, system management platforms and even enable cloud integration.
	Putting it All Together – We’ll help you qualify external 3rd party system components and their optimal integration into this system.  Every application is different and needs additional accessories to become a complete solution.  This may include external charging sources, load management guidance, power conversion equipment such as PoE Converters or DC-DC converters.  We can also provide guidance on proper wiring, over-current protection and lightning protection.

Morningstar’s advantages include:

	Easy component integration—Morningstar designs for mechanical, electronic and data compatibility, with form-factors and configurations at home in a variety of situations. For example, our iconic TriStar controllers are commonly featured as standard equipment in explosion-proof system enclosures used on off-shore platforms in the oil & gas industry.
	Reliability and durability—our charge controlling hardware has been proven with over 4 million in the field, used in some of the most challenging environments on the globe.
	Superior thermal design—we’ve perfected fanless heat management, resulting in solar power conversion components with no moving parts (no fans to fail).  You’ll see a variety of industry-proven designs integrated into our products such as pure aluminum extruded heatsinks, conform circuit-board coatings and thermally-optimized epoxy resin encapsulations of critical power components.
	Fully optimized engineering culture, through employee ownership—we can and do build for the long-term and not just a bottom line, using premium components and circuitry designed for performance instead of economics. Even the copper we use on our circuit boards is a higher-quality “pour” than that found in other brands
	Industry-leading certification and compliance— Morningstar has achieved Hazardous Location (HazLoc) certification for North America, Europe and International use across our core solar charge controller line—the most comprehensive range of controllers to earn this coveted certification. Our core line also meets requirements for a wide variety of UL, IEC, FCC, and safety standards.  Our compliance and certification credentials means that users adopting Morningstar components into their product lines are assured of total conformance, essential to risk management.  Read more about this in the Morningstar and TÜV Rheinland case study.
	Future-proofed features and technologies—Morningstar stays at the leading edge of solar, power conversion, and energy storage technologies. Our software development is the equal of our mechanical excellence. From CAN to Bluetooth, we accommodate all relevant communication protocols and platforms, to provide a seamless network integration experience.
	Advanced energy storage management—Morningstar works with over 20 of the leading battery manufacturers through our Energy Storage Partner (ESP) program, which prioritizes lithium chemistries. With Morningstar on-board, battery health and longevity is assured—a very important factor in protecting this significant system investment.

What’s inside a Morningstar is the reason why you should consider putting a Morningstar inside your products

Morningstar’s controllers are crafted using “over-spec” components throughout– right down to the higher grade copper “pour” used on our circuit boards. We engineer for long-term reliability, not a short-term bottom line. We’re one of the few companies that can do that, because we’re employee-owned and independent. Our engineers design internal components such as circuit boards for maximum performance– not economy

Superior thermal performance that’s critical for long-term reliability

Heat is the enemy of power conversion components in a system, causing premature failures. Unlike Morningstar, almost all brands making mid and high-power solar charge controllers use cooling fans to try and deal with it. But fans come with four inherent problems:

1. Fans ultimately fail because they have moving parts, and must be periodically replaced. Which is expensive, especially in remote systems. This is so common that, in fact, companies putting fans in their controllers put shorter warranties on the cooling fans themselves (less than half that of the controller!)
2. Fans suck in dirt and debris into the controller, potentially coating the insides with it. Over time this can actually increase heat build-up and can cause failure
3. Fans are a “parasitic load,” in that they require electricity to run. They can only get that from the solar charging operation itself, diverting solar-produced electricity away from where it’s needed to run your critical loads
4. In an enclosed system, a charge controller with a fan pushes heat into the rest of the components, compromising their reliability as well

Morningstar’s approach is unique: we’ve eliminated the fans in our solar charging components.  Instead, we design-in superior heat management with both advanced hardware and software.  Our circuit boards and internal components are rated for higher-temperature operation.

We even invented new manufacturing technology to design our TriStar heat sinks, extruding the metal in the desired shape: a taper, which is better at convecting heat away from the controller.

Hazardous Location (HazLoc) rating on a Morningstar charge controller.
Very few solar chargers can earn this coveted certification– Morningstar has it on over 15 models.

Check Out These OEM Partner Resources:

• Morningstar & TÜV Rheinland Partnership for Compliance Services
• Tech Support Library page
• Warranty Policy
• String Sizing Calculator
• Morningstar’s TriStar, ProStar & SunSaver Solar Charge Controllers Video
• Testimonials

See examples of solutions from Morningstar OEM Partners who embedded our products into their offerings