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WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 01/2019

WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 01/2019

Driving the innovation

Driving the innovation of electric motors forward with highly efficient test bench HBM and Schabmüller GmbH, producers of electric motors for mobile machinery, have developed a new test-bench concept for a new type of drive. It offers precision and convenient equipment for cycle-accurate testing and measurement. With sensors integrated into the measurement system, they can control the tests based on acquired data. With its formula database, the motor developer can make real-time DSP calculations foe customizable measuring and testing tasks. MOTION AND DRIVES With e-vehicles on the rise, the requirements for motor performance and efficiency are continually rising. Hence, electric motor manufacturers work continuously to develop new drives. Simultaneously, new test-bench concepts are in demand to test these new motors with the required accuracy. The challenge is to obtain reliable results while precisely controlling test processes. Schabmüller GmbH, one of the leading manufacturer of electric motors for battery-powered vehicles, also applies these requirements to its own test equipment. Together with HBM, the motor manufacturer has developed a test-bench concept that enables measured data to be acquired and evaluated in line with these requirements. Schabmüller designs electric drives for forklift trucks, hybrid trucks and buses, as well as for construction and agricultural machinery. The company relies on HBM’s extensive measurement technology in their new synchronous motor test bench, specifically the ‘Genesis HighSpeed’ data acquisition system and the ‘Perception’ software program. A software program developed using National Instruments’ LabView development environment is deployed for automating and controlling the test bench. “The Genesis HighSpeed measurement system is exceptionally easy to work with and all processes run in parallel and in real time. This makes the development processes of our test bench software much easier and less complex,” explains Dr. Martin Hafner, Manager of Technology Development for Permanent Magnet Synchronous Machines at Schabmüller. A modern test bench concept for innovative electric motors As a driver of innovation, Schabmüller also offers its customers permanent magnet synchronous electric motors. This new type of drive, without any changes to the cooling concept, produces just as much power as comparable asynchronous motors while requiring considerably less space. Optimizing or revising the cooling concept enables this effect to exponentially increased. To ensure precision in testing of the new electric drives, Schabmüller worked with HBM experts to optimize the test bench’s entire measurement chain. Stefan Lauck, development engineer at Schabmüller explains, “We chose the combination of Genesis HighSpeed and Perception software, as well as the LabView development environment as they are very easy to connect with an interface. “Thanks to the Percep- 12 WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 1/2019

01 The combination of HBM’s Genesis HighSpeed data acquisition system and Perception software with the LabVIEW development environment allows precise measurements and fast analysis tion’s sensor database, we can also integrate a wide range of different sensors for current, voltage and torque into the measuring system quite easily, simply by plug-and-play, like inserting a USB device in a computer. Integrating vibration sensors as part of electrical measurement equipment is possible without any problems. That saves us time and resources in setting up the test bench.” The Schabmüller test bench is used for various measurement tasks to reliably determine the short-term or continuous power and energy conversion efficiency of synchronous machines, or to identify their service life and component reliability. Schabmüller experts measure rotational speed and torque, generate efficiency maps, and based on this measured data, determine longitudinal and transverse inductances. Additionally, Schabmüller implements service life experiments under maximum mechanical stress. Longterm thermal experiments also determine how various long-term and interval loading patterns affect the motor function. An optimum system for extremely fast real-time tests To reliably determine all measured data, the test bench’s individual components must work together perfectly. The sensors acquire measurement signals such as current, voltage, temperature and torque and send them to the data acquisition system. The Genesis HighSpeed GEN7tA data acquisition system is used on the Schabmüller test bench along with GN610B acquisition cards. The DSPs, digital signal processors on the cards, process the measured data and calculate the initial results in real-time. The calculated measurement results are forwarded to LabView for analysis – at up to 1000 times per second thanks to the EtherCAT connection. In parallel, HBM’s Perception software also saves all the acquired raw data. “Measured data and real-time computing results are acquired and forwarded simultaneously and with the same time stamp. That’s an enormous advantage for analysis,” emphasizes Stefan Lauck. “We can also create our own formula database for the calculations in Perception and can be used in both, post-process as well as realtime calculations in the DSPs, without any programming of the respective computer architecture.” Perception communicates with the LabView software via a freely programmable software interface. The LabView software is responsible for controlling and automating the test-bench processes. Based on real-time computing results, it controls the load and test specimen machines’ inverters. “The measured data can be processed for cycle-synchronous individual values. Then only the relevant cycle-synchronous computing results are used for control and automation of the test processes. For example, the RMS values of current and voltage or the torque values,” says Stefan Lauck. “Since, if need be, the raw data will still 02 In Schabmüller’s test bench, torque transducers measure the torque and transmit the results to HBM’s GN610B and GN1610B data acquisition cards that record the measured data with high-resolution sample rates of up to 2 MS/s 03 HBM’s Perception software communicates with the LabView development environment via a freely programmable software interface be saved, we can also use it for more extensive post-process analyses.” In addition to the cycle-synchronous individual values, continuously measured data can also be linked in the Perception formula database and processed in real time. No programming knowledge is required for this either. Easy sensor integration and channel synchronization “The combination of LabView and HBM’s Perception software offers us many advantages,” says Stefan Lauck. “Genesis HighSpeed synchronously records measured data of sensors and allows for sample rates of up to 2 ms/s on up to 51 power channels. It automatically synchronizes the sample rates of the different channels and input cards. This considerably reduces users’ overhead. We were also able to make optimum use of LabView advantages, such as the TDMS data format, to rapidly save large amounts of data. This also facilitates the subsequent data analysis using a wide range of available software products.” Schabmüller’s developers received customized support from HBM’s Perception experts as they integrated the data acquisition system into the test bench. According to Stefan Lauck: “Perception is an efficient software program that acquires data reliably. Thanks to the introductory training from HBM, we quickly became proficient. And because Perception is so easy to work with, we are able to define measurement sequences for our specific purposes.” www.hbm.com WORLD OF INDUSTRIES 1/2019 13

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