Yokogawa launches 5th generation of the world’s best-selling power meter

Combining accurate and reliable power measurement over a wide power range with flexibility, ease of use and a choice of communication interfaces, the new instruments will help developers and manufacturers of electrical equipment - ranging from domestic white goods to lighting systems and air-conditioning equipment - to ensure that their products comply with emerging IEC and EN standards and increasingly complex and stringent specifications on energy efficiency.

With almost 100 years of expertise in precision measurement, Yokogawa provides the widest possible range of trustworthy test solutions, comments Terry Marrinan, Yokogawa's Vice President, Test & Measurement, for Europe & Africa: Our earlier ranges of power meters - particularly the hugely successful WT200 - are helping customers across a wide range of industries, and we believe that this new range will continue the process of exceeding our customers' expectations for quality, accuracy and ease of use.

Key features of the new instruments include a basic accuracy of 0.1% of reading, guaranteed accuracy over the entire measurement range (from 1% to 130% ), a wide measurement range from standby power levels of a few milliamperes up to the 40 A currents used in induction cookers, and flexibility to enable users to target different technical and commercial applications.

This includes a range of communications interfaces, allowing the WT300 series of digital power meters to be integrated into laboratory test benches or automated test set-ups on production lines. USB and GPIB or RS232 is fitted as standard, and Ethernet is available as an option.

In addition to standard power measurements, the new meters offer a wide range of harmonic measurement capabilities, including the ability to carry out simultaneous measurement of normal power parameters such as RMS, mean or DC power along with measurement of harmonics up to the 50th order. As a result, overall measurement times are reduced, allowing users to allocate their effort and time to other tasks.

The guaranteed accuracy of the new power meters results from the fact that Yokogawa has its own European standards laboratory at its European headquarters in The Netherlands. This facility is the only industrial (i.e. non-government or national) organisation to offer traceable power calibration, to national and international standards, at frequencies up to 100 kHz: a requirement for higher harmonic measurements specified in quality standards such as ISO9000.

Other features of the new instruments include a bandwidth of DC and 0.5 Hz to 100 kHz (up to 20 kHz for 40 A on the WT310HC), plus an auto-range function for measurement and integration.

Software is also available for testing equipment compliance to industry energy-saving standards such as IEC62301 Ed2.0 and IEC62018 for standby mode equipment or for dealing with waveforms having a crest factor of 5 or more.

Yokogawa is the world's largest manufacturer of power meters and analysers. The WT300 series of digital power meters are the latest addition to the company's wide range, delivering guaranteed power accuracy from the compact WT300 to the highest precision WT3000.