UTRC Power Electronics Lab opens

Equipment in the Power Electronics Lab is designed to measure and analyze information gathered from experiments using a dynamometer.

A new power electronics lab opened at UTRC in early April. The lab is designed to facilitate cutting-edge research for the development of energy-efficient assemblies. Research in the lab will also venture into emerging power electronics fields such as wind energy systems, solar energy, energy storage and other renewable resource fields.

State-of-the-art equipment in the Power Electronic Lab is capable of producing up to 300,000 watts of power. Data analysis equipment in the lab can collect information and measurements at a rate of one report every two micro-seconds. This means that 500,000 data analysis checks can be generated every second in areas such as power consumption, current, voltage and torque.

"The potential for power electronics to improve performance and efficiency in many of UTC products is very real," said Chris Pietrzykowski, Systems Department Leader at UTRC. "We are therefore convinced that our research in this field will be the basis for improved products that can meet the stringent cost, reliability and environmental requirements of manufacturing in the decades to come."

The lab will be equipped with two major power electronic experiment stations as well as work stations for CAD development of power systems.

"The new lab provides a great opportunity to match the needs of the power electronics in industry with UTRC's ability to provide cutting-edge research in this very interesting area," said Vlado Blasko, a UTRC Fellow and the manager of the new lab.