Front End I News
Yokogawa launches the world’s first Precision Power Scope
Last month Yokogawa unveiled the PX8000, a Precision Power Scope that has been designed to bring oscilloscope-style time-based measurement to the measurement of power. The new device can precisely capture voltage and current waveforms, opening up applications and solutions for a huge variety of emerging power measurement problems. “As more and more innovation focuses on energy efficiency and the integration of electronics into power-based systems, more and more engineers are demanding accuracy and precision from their power measurement”, explained Terry Marrinan, Yokogawa’s Vice President, Test & Measurement, for Europe & Africa. The launch of the PX8000 is intended to
provide R&D professionals with high- accuracy time-based power measurement. “A need that conventional power analysers and oscilloscopes were never designed to meet,” according to Marrinan. The PX8000 comes with a host of
features that will be familiar to users of Yokogawa’s existing families of power analysers and oscilloscopes, so the learning curve has been shortened. The new instrument has 12-bit
resolution with 100 MS/s sampling and 20 MHz bandwidth. This means that it can be used for accurate measurement of inverter pulse shapes, which can then be used to fine-tune inverter efficiency. A choice of input modules covers voltage, current and sensor measurements at voltages up to 1000 V RMS and currents up to 5 A RMS (higher values are possible with external
inputs are required. The PX8000 not only has four inputs but also enables the simultaneous capture and display of voltage and current across all three phases. In addition to delivering precision power
measurement, the PX8000 incorporates a number of innovative features that support the crucial measurement and analysis of transient power profiles. For example it
values averaged across the sample period. Up to 16 different waveforms – including voltage, current and power – can be displayed side-by-side, giving engineers instant “snapshots” of performance. The instrument can also support the
capture of power waveforms over specific periods of time through the definition of start and stop “cursors”. This is particularly
current sensors), with basic accuracy down to ±0.1%. To evaluate three-phase electrical systems, at least three power measurement
provides simultaneous voltage and current multiplication to give real-time power sampling, supporting both transient measurement (as standard) and numerical
useful for examining transient phenomena and in the design of periodically controlled equipment. To ensure that such equipment complies with energy standards, it is vital to measure power consumption across a range of different modes from “sleep” to full activity – and all the transient states in between.
The PX8000 also incorporates a history memory function that automatically records up to 1000 historical waveforms which can be recalled and redisplayed at any time. Recorded waveforms can also be used to redefine trigger conditions. Historical waveforms are explored via condition-based searches to locate specific hard-to-isolate abnormal phenomena during repeated high-frequency measurements.
The PX8000 comes with an accompanying PC software application called PowerViewerPlus that can be used to capture waveform data for further analysis. This dramatically extends the number of data points it is possible to analyse, making the PX8000 ideal for capturing and analysing longer-term performance.
Applications for the PX8000 cover everything from sustainable power to advanced robotics. Typical application sectors include inverter and motor testing, reactor loss measurement of inverter boost circuits, transient responses of industrial robots, wireless charger efficiency measurement, and voltage and power measurements in electricity distribution systems.
Project looks to help commercialise innovative nanomaterials
PilotManu, a project developed to reduce the barriers to market for highly innovative materials by piloting commercial applications, has officially been launched. Funded by the European Commission, PIlotManu is an FP7 programme consisting of 10 consortium partners across Europe, one of which is the Centre for Process Innovation (CPI), based in the North East of England.
Now in its tenth year of business, CPI is a part-private, part-publicly-funded organisation set up to help advance the development of novel products and processes for new, globally lucrative markets. By providing open access facilities alongside teams of experienced multi- disciplinary scientists, engineers and business professionals the CPI looks to reduce the risks associated with product and process development. The PilotManu project will lower the barriers to market for the use of highly innovative advanced materials by scaling-up the current research-scale manufacturing facility into an industrial pilot line. This will
6 February 2014
increase the productivity of the technology enabling the supply of cost-effective and
of the pilot line by incorporating these advanced materials into coatings, abrasive
high quality materials which will then be evaluated in several different commercial applications. The project will demonstrate the technological and economical viability
Components in Electronics
tools and additive manufacturing applications.
Among the innovation priorities identified for Europe has been the need to
scale up the most promising material production technology to pilot production level in order to progress towards industrial manufacturing using cutting edge materials in novel new processes. Manufacturing facilities for the production of advance and nanomaterials by high energy ball milling (HEBM) currently suffer from low productivity and high cost which is a key barrier for its application in the wider commercial market sectors. CPI, as part of the PilotManu project, will perform an initial market analysis, an economic assessment of the pilot line that will be developed, and exploitation and dissemination of the project. PilotManu therefore fits in the trans- sectorial activities of the Key Enabling Technologies (KET) that cut across many technology areas and in particular Nanotechnology Advanced Manufacturing Systems and Advanced Materials with a high potential to transform the European manufacturing sector.
For further information on the PilotManu project please go to
www.pilotmanu.eu
www.cieonline.co.uk
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