Automotive

When Clayton Equipment secured the contract from London Underground to convert a fleet of maintenance locomotives from diesel to electric power, it asked EnerSys to supply the motive power batteries. The battery manufacturer supplied cells from its Hawker Perfect Plus range which were assembled into high-performance 210kWh packs to deliver the power needed to support a highly demanding operational requirement.

Expanding its IHLD series of low-profile, high-current dual inductors, Vishay Intertechnology has announced a new device in the 3232 case size. Operating over a wide temperature range from -55 to +155°C, the automotive-grade IHLD-3232HB-5A saves board space by combining two inductors in one 9.75x9.14mm package.

ABSOPULSE Electronics’ RWR 155 series of fully encapsulated, ultra-rugged, railway quality DC/DC converters deliver up to 150W output power. They meet the requirements of EN50155 and, with an input voltage surge withstand capability of 385VDC for more than 1s (3.5Vn for 20ms minimum), also meet RIA12.

An SoC dedicated for Ethernet AVB-enabled vehicle camera networks, the R-Car T2, has been introduced by Renesas Electronics. The R-Car T2 enables the delivery of high-resolution camera video through multiple systems while maintaining real-time performance with low latency levels. These capabilities are key to providing the surround view monitoring and obstacle detection applications that contribute to safe driving experiences.

Microchip announces the industry’s first MOST150 coaxial transceiver. Extending the usage of coaxial cabling to powerful automotive infotainment networks based on the latest MOST150 standard, the recently introduced OS82150 integrates a coaxial cable driver and coaxial cable receiver into a small-footprint, 4x4mm QFN package.

The A5929 from Allegro is a full-bridge gate driver IC designed to drive N-channel external power MOSFETs in automotive applications including Integrated Starter Generator (ISG) systems. The device incorporates a specially designed charge pump regulator that provides a full gate drive voltage of greater than 10V at battery voltages down to 7V and allows operation with reduced gate drive at battery voltages down to 5.5V.

  An in-vehicle computer featuring power on, software-off, shutdown and hard-off delays has been released by Acrosser.

A comprehensive upgrade of classic high power centreless grinding machine tools is helping a leading railcar axle manufacturer to greatly simplify precision grinding operations on axle forgings. A key element of the project – which has been managed by APeC Integration Services – is the retrofit of customised CNC control based on NUM’s powerful Flexium platform.

By Professor Roberto Palacin, Senior Research Associate, Railway Systems Research Group, Newcastle University. As the world’s population becomes increasingly urbanised, it is estimated that the number of journeys measured in passenger-kilometres will triple by 2050. Roads simply can’t absorb this increase.

Delivering stability and endurance in extreme humidity and temperature environments, the T598 high humidity/high temperature series has been unveiled by KEMET. According to the manufacturer, this is the first polymer electrolytic capacitor that meets all of the requirements of the Automotive Electronics Council’s AEC-Q200 specification for passive components.