Simplifying Motor Inverter Validation

Electrification has drastically changed how all elements of a powertrain and structure are designed. Motors and inverters are being newly introduced to many applications and engineers need to implement and validate new propulsion systems and controllers. Evaluating an electric powertrain involves many electrical and mechanical measurements to understand its operation and improve its performance. These signals are then used to calculate a wide variety of parameters such as electric/mechanical power, RMS voltage/current, power factor and others.

The combination of many measurements with different calculation periods often creates a scenario where there are a variety of instruments needed to characterize a powertrain. Having many instruments can raise the complexity and cost of a test and lower its reliability and accuracy. HBK has simplified motor/inverter testing with the eDrive power analyzer which records large amounts of data while giving a high accuracy power measurement. This simplification gives engineers to confidently run a wide variety of tests very quickly and with a high accuracy.

This session will detail the challenge of characterizing an electric powertrain, propose the eDrive as a simplified testing solution, and give testing examples.