I've been involved with several different design teams with several different companies, some competitors and some attempting to
work jointly on projects. All have recognized the problems associated with not only regulation but a true systems approach for boats, RVs,
remote power for homes and facilities,
emergency vehicles,
electric vehicles, etc. So far no real
family of products has emerged which solves all the system requirements.
The CANbus heirarchies for automobiles has been fairly successful in that market amongst the different manufacturers which points out the necessity for haveing an acceptable robust
communications standard. As you may know that standard has not been so accepted in the guise of the NEMA 2000 so-called "standard" in the
marine market. Other standards originated by the computer industry may be sufficiently fast yet are by no means as robust as the CANbus and the
marine and RV markets will continue to be plagued with various manufacturers who utilize their proprietary or other standards thereby creating a morass of difficulty in creating a system solution utilizating various modules from different sources. The problems go on and on.
The most promising solutions have been from specific companies working with specific OEMs to create system solutions for their customers in whole. As a result we will see "higher-end" real-world solutions coming from such sources as Onan, as I mentioned before.
Outback Power may emerge as another system integrator in the areas of
remote power and some crossover into the upper end of the marine markets may occure from them as well.
Xantrex has some very good engineers capable of providing great system solutions yet, in my opinion, their managers along with their design and manufacturing in-house process standards create an unbelievable beurocratic structure preventing timely product response times.
Mega-yacht designers swing great power with budgets capable of driving solutions and we will see some interesting results from there over the next few years as well.
Changing the subject back to power-coating alternators (this is a pet peeve of mine as you can tell): If a particular vessel has such a nasty engine
environment that causes the
alternator to corrode then they ALSO have starter
corrosion problems and other enging electrics
corrosion problems and on and on. The REAL solution is to create your engine space so that there IS no such problem. In the real world of
blue water cruising MANY boats keep the ocean out of their engine spaces quite successfully. Keep it clean, keep it dry, keep it inspected and there is no need to powder coat all of the engine
parts. Who hoses down their engine compartment with
salt water? Yeah it could happen with lousey installations. Fix it!