Test and Measurement


Protection for electric vehicle testing equipment


By Dave Martin, director of business development, Foremost Electronics A


s the world increasingly turns to alternative energy sources, designers and developers of electric vehicle testing equipment are facing


heightened demand, and competition, for fully automated test systems that evaluate high-performance, high-voltage batteries, powertrain and chargers.


Electric vehicle testing systems have many diverse needs ranging from the development and manufacturing of a battery emulator to a test system for battery packs and modules to powertrain test equipment or a power control system. A modular platform to work from offers the most flexible and cost-effective solution. An elegant solution to shorten design time and deliver more equipment faster is to work with a single, trusted source for all the mechanical, safety and power infrastructure solutions necessary for the testing equipment. As a key channel partner for nVent SCHROFF Foremost Electronics are ideally placed to provide such turnkey solutions.


Key elements of a modular 19” rack mounted test and measurement system will include:


19” rack hardware


● Electronics cabinets to house instrumentation and other equipment.


● Enclosures and chassis to house measurement boards – for vertical and horizontal mounting. ● EMC protection, ESD safe castors for mobile racks and cable management systems.


Power and safety infrastructure


● Power distribution units (PDUs), including safety switches and emergency stop panel.


● Remote management option to maintain system health status.


Because test systems often consist of many heterogeneous internal components that require different currents and power and may also be deployed in different regions


48 April 2023


with different power sources, selecting the right solutions for power and safety management is critical.


Thermal management solutions ● Maintaining the optimal temperature for equipment is critical to maximising performance. As temperatures rise, electronics – especially the power supply, DAQ and other systems that require higher heat dissipation – can overheat, causing malfunction and device failure. ● Access to technical specialists to evaluate automated test systems in order to identify potential problem areas and help customers select the ideal cooling management solutions for optimal performance.


System infrastructure


● Backplanes, power supply and other components that meet the specifications for equipment based on open standards, including CPCI Serial, PXIe or others.


PXI and PXIe systems consist of three main hardware components: a chassis with backplane, controller and modules. The PXIe chassis is a rugged mechanical form-factor and has integrated timing / synchronization function that is used to route synchronization clocks, and triggers internally. A variety of vendors focus on developing plug-and-play modules for the PXIe chassis and controller. All these components are modular and exchangeable.


Foremost Electronics have access to more than 6,000 standard products to provide tailored solutions meeting application specific requirements. Based on a modular platform concept, the products are readily available, backed by localised manufacturing, global service and sales support. An example of this approach is demonstrated by the following case study:


Components in Electronics


Requirement


The customer is an American vehicle and clean energy product manufacturer based in California. The requirement was based on traditional 19’ cabinets with IP55 protection for rack-mounted and non-rack mount devices for their battery charging, discharging, and thermal performance measurements.


Challenge


The enclosure suite was required to house and protect both rack-mounted and non-rack mounted devices as well as combinations of both. The customer wanted the flexibility to decide on a cabinet-by-cabinet basis as to what custom options they needed to integrate their testing equipment.


Solution


The sales and design engineer teams partnered to evaluate the customer’s needs on a cabinet- by-cabinet basis and came up with a base unit that could be customised as needed,


depending on what equipment the customer needed to include. This resulted in fewer part numbers, and the creation of an accessory package of identified commonalities for each cabinet to go with whatever configuration was created. The relationship built with this customer during the design process ensured all future unique cabinet configuration needs and add-ons were approved, allowing the best configurations, cost, and lead-times were possible to support the customer. Foremost are the UK Channel partner for nVent SCHROFF who are recognised globally for quality, reliability and innovation to safeguard systems in virtually any environment. The nVent SCHROFF platform – including cabinets, racks, subracks, power distribution, climate control and more – is specially designed for flexibility to more easily and cost-effectively be tailored to meet specific application requirements.


www.4most.co.uk www.cieonline.co.uk.uk


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