Easy peasy
Advanced Member level 6
Why you need a power electronics consultant at project start rather than at project deadline.
We get a lot of projects where we are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
In contrast, our established clients invite us in at project start to mull over their requirements and then report back in lecture format to their engineers in an open discussion as to why certain approaches are much better than others, here's why ...
you need a consultant earlier rather than later - especially in power electronics;
1) Consultants always look at the bigger picture - what are all the uses? what standards need to be met? how are you going to manufacture? are some of the mooted specifications really necessary? what does the end user / client really want? do they know what they really want? what can we change to make life easier all the way through...? In house engineers are sometimes reluctant to ask the hard questions of management.
2) Some one with 25+ years in power electronics likely knows all the subtle ways a power electronic circuit and it's control can be tweaked to get the performance you really want - they also know which control chips to avoid - which topologies are bad news for RFI - which layouts really work for EMC, what will easily pass safety standards and what won't.
Does your in house engineer have all this up their sleeve?
3) Setting direction at the outset of a power electronics project is crucial in getting to the end in a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost. A lot of projects have hidden assumptions at the outset that lead to being painted into a corner at testing time with no easy or cheap way to correct.
For example, you heatsink all your semi's to a pcb, but then you fail all the RFI / EMC - or worse the control does not work due to all the noise from the power stage - there is no room for snubber circuits, or, to put in properly heat-sunk devices - on a heatsink - allowing you to alter the turn on speed to try and improve matters. A lot of effort and revisions can result in a dead line of enquiry ... not the deadline you were hoping for.
4) Consultants know about mechanical design issues too, and thermodynamics ( cooling ) - all in conjunction with EMC, phase change materials, properties of special insulators - what you can't put through a reflow process, properties of components - which capacitors will last under high current - which won't, even what mosfets to trust in critical applications - all learned from years of observation.
5) Overall layout, not only of the power electronics but relative to everything in the same enclosure - this can often make a huge difference to passing EMC and the product working properly.
In summary, where a keen employee has the best intentions - the consultant has the best training - often 25+ years worth, where an employee has hope of a circuit working - the consultant has history of seeing designs that do and don't work ( and why ) and of having tested same - and even having better IP at their fingertips ...
Get your power electronics project off to the best start - rather than just a hopeful and well meaning start ... pwrtrnx.com
We get a lot of projects where we are the ambulance at the bottom of the cliff.
In contrast, our established clients invite us in at project start to mull over their requirements and then report back in lecture format to their engineers in an open discussion as to why certain approaches are much better than others, here's why ...
you need a consultant earlier rather than later - especially in power electronics;
1) Consultants always look at the bigger picture - what are all the uses? what standards need to be met? how are you going to manufacture? are some of the mooted specifications really necessary? what does the end user / client really want? do they know what they really want? what can we change to make life easier all the way through...? In house engineers are sometimes reluctant to ask the hard questions of management.
2) Some one with 25+ years in power electronics likely knows all the subtle ways a power electronic circuit and it's control can be tweaked to get the performance you really want - they also know which control chips to avoid - which topologies are bad news for RFI - which layouts really work for EMC, what will easily pass safety standards and what won't.
Does your in house engineer have all this up their sleeve?
3) Setting direction at the outset of a power electronics project is crucial in getting to the end in a reasonable time and at a reasonable cost. A lot of projects have hidden assumptions at the outset that lead to being painted into a corner at testing time with no easy or cheap way to correct.
For example, you heatsink all your semi's to a pcb, but then you fail all the RFI / EMC - or worse the control does not work due to all the noise from the power stage - there is no room for snubber circuits, or, to put in properly heat-sunk devices - on a heatsink - allowing you to alter the turn on speed to try and improve matters. A lot of effort and revisions can result in a dead line of enquiry ... not the deadline you were hoping for.
4) Consultants know about mechanical design issues too, and thermodynamics ( cooling ) - all in conjunction with EMC, phase change materials, properties of special insulators - what you can't put through a reflow process, properties of components - which capacitors will last under high current - which won't, even what mosfets to trust in critical applications - all learned from years of observation.
5) Overall layout, not only of the power electronics but relative to everything in the same enclosure - this can often make a huge difference to passing EMC and the product working properly.
In summary, where a keen employee has the best intentions - the consultant has the best training - often 25+ years worth, where an employee has hope of a circuit working - the consultant has history of seeing designs that do and don't work ( and why ) and of having tested same - and even having better IP at their fingertips ...
Get your power electronics project off to the best start - rather than just a hopeful and well meaning start ... pwrtrnx.com
