Euronorms require measurement of the harmonic current produced by most electrical and electronic equipment as a mandatory part of CE marking
The new HA1600 and AC1000 from TTi (Thurlby Thandar Instruments) offer a complete solution for in-house compliance quality measurements of current waveform harmonics and flicker as required by the standards EN61000-3-2 and EN61000-3-3.
Since 1 January 2001, EN61000-3-2 has required the measurement of the harmonic current produced by most electrical and electronic equipment.
Certain types of equipment also require testing to EN61000-3-3 (flicker testing).
Compliance is a mandatory part of CE marking.
The TTi solution comprises two units, the HA1600 mains and harmonics analyser with built-in flicker meter, and the AC1000 low-distortion AC power supply.
The two units can be supplied with a variety of mains connectors to suit different national standards.
The HA1600 has a 16A current capability, and uses a shunt resistance of 3milliohms as defined by the standard. The large backlit LCD display provides both graphical and numeric displays.
An RS-232 interface is incorporated, as well as isolated monitor outputs which provide re-constructed voltage and current signals.
The instrument provides numerical and graphical analysis of mains harmonics from the first to the 40th to very high accuracy, and can make compliance quality measurements to EN61000-3-2.
Harmonics can be displayed as lists or as histograms, with the compliance limits automatically calculated and displayed.
Simple pass/fail analysis can be done, or detailed failure information can be rapidly extracted.
The fast update rate allows real-time monitoring of circuit changes.
The HA1600 is capable of continuous real-time analysis of both voltage and current.
As a general-purpose mains analyser, it can measure watts, VA, Vrms, Vpk, Arms, Apk, crest factors, total harmonic distortion, power factor, frequency and inrush current with a rating of 16A RMS continuous.
As a flicker meter, the HA1600 can perform simultaneous full analysis of voltage variations, including the calculation of the maximum value, the difference between steady states, and the change characteristic as required by EN61000-3-3.
The AC1000 is a 1kW power source which removes distortions from the AC mains waveform to provide a pure sinusoidal source as required by the standard.
It is rated up to 1000VA for 230V operation, and has a continuous current rating of 4.4A and a peak current rating of 10A.
In contrast to products which use a passive filtering approach, it uses an innovative technique which actively corrects the AC supply to produce a harmonically pure output.
The HA1600 and AC1000 package costs £1585 (plus VAT) in the UK.
