Electric Power

July 4, 2023 admin

Whether automotive, aerospace, manufacturing, production, or energy generation and distribution: they all need electric power, and e-mobility is key on our way towards an emission-free future. Development engineers across industries work hard to increase the efficiency of critical and auxiliary systems while cutting costs and shortening development times.

Extensive testing with advanced testing methods and equipment allows engineers to understand the dynamic behaviour of components and systems, and to optimize it. HBK’s dedicated electric power testing solutions simplify testing by combining all components of the measurement chain into a single source of truth – real-time, reliable, reproducible.

Electric Power Testing – From Component to Vehicle Energy Management

HBK provides the entire measurement chain for electrical power testing – from electrical machine testing to high voltage and complex inverter control testing in the automotive, ground vehicle, and aerospace industry as well as the manufacturing, production, and energy industries.
Our solution covers sensors, hardware, and software for testing electrical inverters and electrical machines. Mechanical signals (e.g. torque) and electrical signals (current and voltage) are acquired simultaneously, helping you to better understand the electric drive and its losses within minutes. This is important for the optimization of the drive as well as the increase in efficiency.

Electrical Machine & Powertrain Testing

Testing electrical machines and electrical power trains is a key task in developing the electric future of industry and transportation. For a substantial increase in efficiency of next-generation machines, drives, cars and larger vehicles, it is essential that every machine and every drive are precisely tested and improved, wherever possible. And that these tests do not only cover static tests, but also allow the understanding of the dynamic behaviour of machines and drives.

Electric System and Inverter System Testing

Creating a system out of components sounds easy but testing this is a real challenge. And it becomes more difficult as advanced concepts like high phase counts, multi motor drive trains or hybrid vehicles are coming into the picture. Or if the system just gets so large that investigating on component level only does not help. Be it an all-wheel electric car, a locomotive from pantograph to traction motor, or the electric installation on board a ship or a plane, testing needs to be able to adapt to these complex multi-dimensional tasks.

High Voltage and Switchgear Testing

Higher power electrical machines are operated at higher voltages and huge currents – several kV and kA. Or – like in aerospace – voltages are brought up to bring currents down to save copper-based weight. Safely and accurately testing such machines and installations operating above the 1 kV border of “low voltages” is quite challenging. And when it comes to the subsystems an AC or the new DC grids are built up from – inverters, transformers, switchgears – the demand on high voltage test capabilities up to several 100 kV as well as equipment and user protection becomes mission critical.

Grid Testing

While power is generated and distributed, there is a continuous challenge to test the quality of the generation, the effects from the consumers back into the grid, and the stability and quality of the grid itself. Modern grids are highly managed intelligent energy distribution systems, and advanced test methods are needed to understand the grid behaviour better beyond the typical RMS and power values.