15 October 2013

Quartzelec’s impressive new test facilities at Rugby are now complete and fully operational..... the result of 12 months planning, installation and almost £1 million expenditure.

As a technical authority in the field of rotating electrical machines, Quartzelec has now created a dedicated test area that has the ability to test all types of rotating electrical machines (AC/DC motors and generators), gearboxes and transformers to national and international standards, ensuring a wide range of dynamic and static tests can be delivered, either as a stand-alone service or encompassed within a repair or overhaul.

The newly developed test area, utilising the overhead crane capacity of up to 70 tonnes (100 tonnes combined), provides testing for induction motors, synchronous motors and generators and DC machines as well as variable speed drives string tests, gearbox testing, transformer testing, static testing and panel testing; all of which clients can witness first hand from the comfort and safety of a dedicated control room complete with all the latest data acquisition computer driven protocols.

The move to new premises has allowed the test offering to be substantially increased thanks to:

• Redesigned power feed enabling forward short circuit testing allowing testing of considerably larger machines than previously (6-7MW at full current/reduced load as opposed to 1.2MW, and 710/800 frame size as opposed to 450 frame size).

• Independent modern controls on all test machines enabling engineers much greater control and flexibility for more complex testing with no reconfiguration.

• Increased number of data logging points/variables. The new test sets are also fitted with Quartzteq's Lifeview condition monitoring system, enabling live customer demonstrations.

With the move to the new purpose built facility, over 200 tonnes of equipment for the test bed had to be moved. There was also 2127m of power cable (150mm2 and above) removed from the old facility, with 70-80% reused and a further 1500m of new power cable installed. Over 200m of copper busbar was removed and re-installed (180 joints/720 nuts and bolts) and over 720m of aluminium busbar removed and reinstalled (660 joints/3000 nuts and bolts).