One recent automotive application involves Hyundai Mobis, the world’s sixth largest Tier 1 supplier. The company tests its electric steering systems with a dynamometer system. Installed this past summer, the system is used by the company’s engineering group in South Korea for engineering validation and performance evaluation of electric motors and electronic control units (ECUs) that directly control the motor during electric steering.

The system consists of a 1.5-kilowatt, four-quadrant, AC-motor dynamometer and a high-voltage battery simulator, which provides repeatable accurate testing results for the steering components. The system communicates with the ECU via a CAN (Controller Area Network) bus.

Hyundai Mobis conducts a full suite of tests on the system to ensure that steering operates smoothly, with no perceptible torque ripple felt by the driver. This includes vibration and resonance testing to verify that motors and controls operate over their full performance range with absolutely minimal ripple.

Automotive companies like Hyundai Mobis are not the only manufacturers that use dynamometers, however. Earlier this year, Lockheed Martin Space Systems Co. installed two additional AccuDyne AC-motor dynamometers in its materials technology laboratory. Lockheed uses the equipment for research, development, quality control and design validation of various advanced aerospace technologies.

The dynamometers complement two dynamometer test systems SAKOR supplied to Lockheed Martin in 2012 for testing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite R-Series. Along with increased efficiency, the dynamometers are able to test several devices by directly controlling motors and drives with or without the use of the MIL-STD-1553 avionics bus.

The older systems are designed to be used with magneto-fluidic couplings, which allow Lockheed Martin to test products within a thermo-vacuum chamber while keeping the dynamometer outside. This configuration is ideal for testing components intended for deep space.

In contrast, the new dynamometers can be used as independent test systems or networked in groups of up to four. Grouped systems allow for precise, controlled comparison testing of multiple components under the same conditions within the chamber.

AccuDyne dynamometers can achieve extremely high or low speed and torque rates, such as one full rotation every 231.5 days. They also provide seamless transition between loading and motoring modes, and feature the DynoLAB control system. This system offers complete automation of all types of test cycles used in performance, durability and quality control testing. Lockheed Martin especially likes that DynoLAB lets them fully integrate the entire test system for flight drives.

Also available from SAKOR are MicroDyne and small-engine AC dynamometers. The former is a tabletop version of the AccuDyne designed for small motor and generator testing (100 watts to 5 kilowatts). The latter accurately tests engines up to 8.7 hp, in a horizontal or vertical orientation. For more information on dynamometers, call 989-720-2700 or visit www.sakor.com.