Converters for Industry and Labs

Industry and research managers continue to contact us about the optimal solution for powering global electronic equipment. Across the globe, these communities are using increasingly delicate and precise test equipment and they have become both global and mobile, with equipment and researchers moving worldwide.

For power and test challenges KCC Scientific Converters solve the following concerns:

What if you need to test a product being developed for a different power grid?

What if your test equipment was developed for a different power grid?

What if your research requires clean, isolated power for delicate instrumentation?

What if your equipment requires regulated ultra-high mains power line frequency precision?

What if you need compact, precision converters for mobile testing?

KCC Scientific frequency and voltage converters are designed to power delicate and precise electronic devices anywhere in the world. They do it by reconstructing the power line or mains reconstruction (patent pending).

Many of the frequency converter units out there look like they were designed in the 70’s—because in many cases, they were designed between the 70’s and the 90’s. Designing new products for this space is not for the faint of heart, and many companies who originally designed these products in that era no longer have the expertise in house to update the products. As a result, they are saddled with older designs (which may or may not meet newer safety, EMI, and PFC standards). They also use 30 year-old semiconductor technologies. These older technologies suffer from lower efficiency and bring with them larger, heavy inductors and SMPS transformers. These things in combination lead to weight issues. The result is equipment up around 80 pounds for 1000 watts.

Up until now, frequency and voltage converters have been developed and available primarily with large industrial applications in mind. These converters are generally higher power (1,500 watts) or more. Further, they may convert frequency and voltage, with only one level (output frequency and voltage not selectable). At the time of purchase, an end user must often select from 230V AC 50Hz to 115V AC 60Hz or vice versa, but the option of having both available in one product has not been universally available. In addition, it is simply too hard to set them up.

These higher power converters are mostly large, heavy and immobile. In addition, the starting price point is often well over USD $3000. The cost is cumbersome enough that vendors offer rentals in addition to purchase. For today’s research labs, these older, traditional models are simply too much cost, size, weight and power—and not enough precision. Further, they do not enable a test lab to move around the globe to conduct work with universal power.

New Compact Precision Converters

Today, as a result of the globally collaborative environment and a mobile workforce, it is imperative that frequency and voltage converters be compact, relatively lightweight, higher precision, and economical. In addition, frequency and voltage converters today must include outputs selectable for all power grids. As a result, these newer KCC Scientific frequency and voltage converters convert, clean and regulate power through mains reconstruction (patent pending). To learn more, click here: https://www.kccscientific.com/products/

With all KCC Scientific converters, everything you need is included.

Let’s start with the power cord or wall plug. We ship a power cord or wall plug to accommodate the wall mains in accordance with the customer’s selection at checkout. The customer can choose from Type B (North America), Euro plug or Schuko Type E (European), BS1363 Type G (Great Britain and Asia), Type I (Australia and New Zealand), and Type M (South Africa).

With Hercules and Thor, we also include a wall adapter. The convenience of using a wall adapter cannot be overstated. These adapters are fully certified and rugged. Nevertheless, they are easy to replace should some event occur which causes them damage.

The output receptacle on Hercules and Thor is universal, and can likewise accommodate plug styles from nearly every country. Above a certain power level, wall adapters are not an option. For Mercury converters the power supply is built in.
The output receptacles provided are the standard NEMA 5-15 Type A/B North American 2 or 3-prong style) for 115V AC output. In addition, a Schuko-style plug is provided for 230V AC output. Output adapter plugs for other countries are available upon request. A rack mount is available for purchase, if needed for Mercury converters.

PFC stands for Power Factor Correction. Older (and some newer) equipment use linear transformers, rectifiers and very large capacitors to create the internal DC voltages used to power the equipment. This style of power supply has been recognized for years as violating newer power standards for efficiency. The reason is that it wastes a great amount of power in contrast to the real power delivered. Many frequency and voltage converters as well as the equipment being powered by them suffer from this issue.

KCC Scientific converters are all PFC-corrected. This means high efficiency, the ability to meet newest standards, and lightweight design. A side benefit is that this helps smooth the power factor of the equipment being powered, regardless of whether the equipment is PFC compliant or not.

Yes!  If you have an installation requiring, say, 1500 watts, you can “split” the power distribution for that system into two branches and use two converters, each providing one-half of the required power to each branch.

However, DO NOT connect multiple converters in parallel into the same branch to boost the power. This is both unsafe and just plain won’t work.

I would like to use the Hercules 200-watt converter to operate a leakage current test at 60Hz. When I start it up, the leakage tester displays “no earth connection.” Is the output of the frequency converter floating?

The Hercules Converter acts as an isolation transformer. If the leakage current tester is using the line or neutral connections as the earth reference, then it will show that there is no connection.

If you have an application where you need the neutral output grounded, we would be happy to configure it that way for you at the factory. Please contact us at https://www.kccscientific.com/contact/  at the time of purchase and we can configure the unit accordingly. If you already purchased the unit, it can be returned and re-configured for you.

A recent customer inquired: We need to power our device at 230V at exactly 50.0000Hz to analyze performance. The device will not function optimally at small variations of frequency + – 0.1Hz. What is the precision of KCC Scientific converters frequency?

All KCC Scientific frequency and voltage converters are accurate to within .0002%. If you need absolute precision we encourage you to use the Professional Series converters. These models include Thor at 100 watts, Hercules at 200 Watts and Mercury at up to 1000 watts. The Professional Series products are of scientific grade performance and are most applicable for research and test.

There is no issue with under-loading a KCC Scientific converter. They perform optimally with any load from 0 watts to full power.

A recent customer asked: We travel the world with a few racks of sensitive electronic equipment and have been struggling to find a reasonably priced, universal AC AC converter. What is the size and weight of the Professional Series Converters?

The Professional Series frequency and voltage converters are compact, lightweight and economical. They are perfect for laboratory benches as well as racks travelling the globe. Here are the sizes, weights and cost.