Power Electronics, Machines & Drives

Tried and Tested

In order to enhance the performance of your technologies and applications, precise test environments must be configured to continually achieve reliable results. Experiments need to be directly compared and analysed, so that performance gains are identified and incorporated into future designs.

We provide a huge range of electronic loads and sources to isolate and test virtually any power device. Testing individual components enables optimum operating conditions to be characterised, even under different user behaviour profiles.

Electric Motor and Controls Testing

Turning electrical energy into mechanical energy is more common than the untrained eye might think. There are many hidden motors within industrial appliances besides the obvious ones in fans, washing machines and power tools. In fact, electric motors are the single biggest consumer of the world's power output.

An integrated SD card for LAB-SMP and LAB-HP DC sources allow simple automated motor tests to be run at the push of a button. Test files are written and uploaded in text script, so there's no complicated programming language to learn.

When more advanced DC testing is required, BatControl drive cycle software is available for the G5-SOURCE and LAB-TC modules. Complex routines can be replicated by importing data from a CSV file. Previous tests have been conducted using over 400,000 individual data points, with more possible. The power supplies are tolerant of a back EMF up to 110% of their nominal voltage, protecting them from damage.

The EAC-ACS-4Q can be used to simulate three phase motor imbalances. Each of the unit's output phases are individually programmable for phase angle, voltage, current and frequency. The system comes with ACSControl operating software, providing users with a convenient way to program specific phase imbalance conditions.

ACSControl Operating GUI
ACSControl Operating GUI

Besides testing motors G5-RSS, CON-DSS and EAC-ACS-4Q models can emulate the bidirectional characteristics of DC or AC motors. This allows components such as the controller to be isolated and optimised.

Three Phase AC Motor Test Setup
Three Phase AC Motor Test Setup

Pre-Compliance Testing

Submitting power devices to a regulatory body can prove expensive and time consuming if it isn't right first time. A change of design late in the development process may introduce other unforeseen compliance issues, lengthening time to market.

Users can perform quality and operational tests at all stages of the development process by using a programmable power system. Real world usage conditions can be replicated in an automated routine. This ensures that there are no nasty shocks when submitting a finished product for evaluation.

All EN 61000-4-11 regulatory tests are pre-programmed into single phase EAC-S and three phase EAC-3S AC sources. The three standard tests are voltage dips, short interruptions and voltage variation immunity tests. The regulations define the requirements and conditions, to test how power systems behave under changes to the AC mains voltage.

EN 61000-4-11 Regulatory Tests
EN 61000-4-11 Regulatory Tests

Power Inverter/Converter Testing

When developing a power conversion system, it is important to determine what influence electrical variables have on performance. Our power systems can replicate virtually any AC/DC input or output. The impact of specific variables on performance can be investigated, including current harmonics, line voltage variation and power factor.

The EAC-ACS-4Q is a grid simulator used to test conversion devices which connect directly to the mains. When combined with GridSim software, many conditions can be accurately simulated such as load balancing, brownouts and voltage spikes. The software is pre-installed with grid feed-in regulations, to ensure devices are compliant with CENELEC, DIN and IEC standards.

DC sources such as the LAB-SMP and LAB-HP have a dedicated PV simulation mode as standard. This simulates a generator's MPP tracking in current and voltage modes to test solar inverters under varying conditions.

A more complex SASControl GUI is available for advanced G5-SOURCE and LAB-TC systems. This has all EN 50530 standards pre-installed for testing efficiencies of grid connected photovoltaic inverters. The GUI allows users to edit irradiance, temperature and amplitude values.

Three Phase Grid-tied Inverter Test Setup
Three Phase Grid-tied Inverter Test Setup

Accreditations

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