Workshop and Electronic Laboratory
Mechanical workshop
The institute's mechanical workshop supports research efforts by setting up test benches and constructing and manufacturing components for electrical machines. The activities range from sheet metal package production, joining of rotor and shaft or joining of stator and housing, gluing in magnets and assembling prototype motors. Maximum shaft powers of prototype machines realized and measured at IEM so far, range up to about 300 kW.
The workshop is equipped with machine tools for metal, wood and plastic processing. The equipment includes, among other things, various large conventional lathes and milling machines, a CNC milling machining center, various pillar drilling machines and a surface grinding machine. To enable contour cutting, the institute has a wire eroding center consisting of a wire eroding machine with travel ranges of 400 mm × 300 mm × 200 mm, a starting hole eroding machine and a micro-jet cabin for surface finishing. In addition, the mechanical workshop has a welding workstation for the processes of inert gas and electric welding. Furthermore, a 2 m wide electric guillotine shear and a 2 m wide sheet metal bender are available for sheet metal processing.
When setting up the test benches in the test halls, the load machine and test specimen are precisely aligned with each other. This is done with the aid of a laser alignment system, considering the permissible tolerances.
The maintenance of the institute's machine test benches is the responsibility of the mechanical workshop. The same applies to co-supervision of the 4 MW large machine test bench of the Center for Windpower Drives (CWD) or the test center for electrical machines in the electromobility laboratory (eLab).
Electronics Laboratory
The electronics laboratory supports research efforts at the Institute of Electrical Machines in a variety of ways. The employees of the electronics laboratory equip the test benches with suitable measurement technology and power electronics, procure them and put them into operation. They maintain the test benches and advise the scientists on the selection of sensors and power components. The electronics laboratory also sets up, converts and maintains electrical systems for test bench operation.
Another field of activity of the electronics laboratory is the development of measurement, control and power electronics. In research activities, measurement tasks are often encountered that cannot be solved with products available on the market. For this purpose, the electronics laboratory develops analog circuits with high-resolution and high-sampling analog/digital converters for precise and time-synchronous acquisition of relevant measured variables on the test bench. Digital circuits in the form of self-developed motor controller systems are realized with microprocessors, DSPs and FPGAs. The connection of analog front-ends to the digital processors is also part of the competence of the electronics laboratory.
The planning, development and construction of customized power electronics also takes place in the electronics laboratory. Power electronic components are electrically and thermally simulated and selected for tasks on the test field. Driver circuits for MosFET, IGBT and SiC semiconductors are individually calculated in the electronics laboratory.
The CAD software ALTIUM Designer as well as a solder paste printer, a reflow oven and an automatic assembly machine are available for the development and assembly of electronic circuits. Modern measurement technology such as oscilloscopes, interface decoders, spectrum analyzers, signal generators, thermal cameras, laboratory power supplies for low and high voltages, LCR meters, calibrators and high-precision multimeters are available for testing and setup.