Micrometals, Inc. applications

As countries and consumers around the world strive to reduce their CO2 emissions the automotive and transportation sectors have experienced a significant amount of change in terms of consumer habits, technology changes and governmental regulations. All of these factors are shifting more focus to more efficient and powerful electrically powered vehicles. Even though internal combustion engine (ICE) driven vehicles are projected remain the drive of choice for  the next 5-10 years there is an accelerating movement toward electrically enhanced or driven drivetrains, which offer fewer emissions and less maintenance. These include Mild Hybrid, Full Hybrid and Plug-In Electric vehicles.

The traditional power converters used for photovoltaic (PV) applications use an inductor to achieve the power conversion. Micrometals high performance Iron and Alloy Powder Cores are widely specified for DC-DC voltage converters in PV systems because of their smaller size, better efficiency and superior magnetic properties. Solar panels utilizing photovoltaic (PV) cells produce DC (36V~>50V DC) power, while wind powered generator produces variable frequency AC power, AC power is first rectified and filtered to produce DC.

The lighting industry has experienced some rather large shifts in the past 10 years. For a century the incandescent bulb was the standard for lighting but as the manufacturing capabilities for fluorescent bulbs improved the use of incandescent bulbs waned, but was still prevalent. But today both of those lighting methods have been dramatically overtaken by the prevalence of Light Emitting Diodes (LED). Today, LED’s are available in a wide variety of standard shapes, color levels, and intensities. LED’s provide a more energy efficient and reliable light source which is actually more of a system than just the bulb it had replaced. That system includes the actual light emitting diode, the package, and a driver circuit that includes an inductor for energy storage and power conversion.

Motors are widely utilized in household, commercial and industrial applications from moving gas and liquids, as in fans and pumps, to powering hand tools and heavy equipment. Automotive industry is also increasingly using traction motors for powering wheels. In many cases, an adjustable speed is required to accommodate changing needs. This is accomplished with a motor controller / motor drive in which a DC-AC converter chops up a DC input signal into discrete steps to create a custom AC waveform, with the desired frequency.

In the event of a power outage, critical systems require reliable backup supplies to resume operation seamlessly. Uninterrupted power supply (UPS) kicks in to supply this need. UPS are used in home offices, data centers, and in various medical, commercial and industrial environments. During normal AC line condition, UPS takes available AC line power, convert to DC power to charge a high capacity battery. When input power is interrupted, battery engages an inverter to provide regulated AC power. UPS may also provide additional power conditioning in the event of transients or other voltage excursion, without resorting to battery power.