Relec March 2018 Newsletter

LR Series Rugged AC DC converters

The LR series follows on as a AC input version of the highly successful, ultra-wide input HR / HRP series of DC DC converters from the Swiss design team at Melcher. They have developed these converters and optimised them for use in transportation and other advanced electronic systems.

As with all Melcher branded products, the LR comes in an extremely rugged euro-cassette format with a range of accessories for either rack or chassis mounting. The case design allows for operation at nominal load up to 71 °C with natural cooling. If forced cooling is provided, the ambient temperature may exceed 71 °C, but the case temperature must remain below 95 °C. The LR series has been designed in accordance with the requirements and EN50155, EN50121-4 and is also available with a fully compliant subrack meeting the American Railway Engineering and Maintenance-of-Way Association (AREMA) standards.

LBC Series High Performance Battery Chargers

Historically train borne battery chargers have been integrated within the large auxiliary converter which also provides power to HVAC systems, compressors etc. This has traditionally meant that large and heavy equipment (traction converter, auxiliary converter and battery ) are all in one location on the train leading to increased axle loads which leads to higher levels of abrasion of the track and train wheels. The LBC series allows the battery and charger to be separated, with weight being more evenly distributed across all the carriages of the train.

The high power density of the LBC series gives greater flexibility to system builders, allowing them to distribute weight more efficiently around the train.  The LBC series can supply up to 12kW of output power at 110V dc with a class leading power density of 213W/cm3. The heart of the system is a digital system protocol (DSP) for control and monitoring of all system parameters making it the ideal building block for charging traction batteries. An Internal RS485 / CAN bus is used for command, monitoring and diagnostic information that is supplied to the shelf controller and to the external supervising system. External communication is provided by either CAN or Ethernet communication.

As always we really want to hear from about your applications and your requirements.  From there we can tailor the perfect solution to meet your needs.

The Big Relec Bike Ride 2018 – John O’Groats to Lands End

As you may have already seen as part of our Relaunch, we have teamed up with the Brain Tumour Charity with a view to helping raise some valuable funds towards extremely important get under funded research.  In conjunction with my partner Lesley, we are cycling from John O’Groats to Lands End this June with the aim of raising £10,000 for the charity.

We are back in the saddle after a written off February.  We’ve a target of 450 training miles for March and with a little luck from the weather we should be able to get there.  We are still on the look out for more donations and sponsors though and we do have some interesting promotional ideas in the pipeline – Please keep an eye on our blog for more news of our training and news from our sponsors

Working with Students

Here are at Relec we have always been keen to support the next generation of engineers who are coming through and quite shamelessly, I’m promoting not just the use of our EDA100 in a student project, but also the handy-work of my son Tom, who is a student at Southampton Solent University.  Tom has used our EDA100 to power a series of solenoids from the output of an Arduino single board computer to remotely play a recorder.  The coolest thing by far was that Tom designed and 3D printed his own blower to push air through the recorder.  Sweet music indeed

If you’re a student and need a power supply or DC DC converter or display for one of your projects, please give us a call and we would be delighted to help.

We hope you find our newsletters interesting and informative.  At the end of the day we are nothing if we don’t hear back from you.  We would like to get your feedback on what we do well and more importantly we want to know where we can improve.  Please give me a call – I would love to hear from you

John Stone

Sales Director

Tel: 01929 555700

www.relec.co.uk / sales@relec.co.uk