Overcurrent protection devices include circuit breakers, fuses or overcurrent relays. These safety devices are to protect the circuit from the dangerous effects of overcurrent by cutting the electrical current in the event of an overload or short circuit. These protective devices must be in accordance with the voltage ratings and power of the equipment for which they are designed; otherwise, they may explode while attempting to stop faulty currents beyond their ratings. Potential damages (explosions, ignitions) can be all the more serious if dealing with a high energy electrical device. For this reason, DC overcurrent protectiion devices for systems with large electric energy storage capacity must meet special performance specifications.

In order to be able to determine the limits of these protective devices, ITOPP has designed a test bench specifically sized to replicate the effects of short-circuit effects in high DC equipment for electrical vehicles and battery energy storage systems (BESS).

The test bench developed by ITOPP operates on several types of current/voltage waveforms. The discharge parameters are adjustable and a human-machine interface system allows precise indications of the discharge parameters according to the settings that have been applied. This results in a significant gain in time during experimental set-up. The bench is equipped with a shielded, non-flammable test chamber and includes a smoke evacuation system to eliminate any risk linked to a faulty system under test. 

ITOPP’s knowledge and experience is available to customers and scalable to meet their specific technical requirements. ITOPP can offer ready-made technologies and existing techniques, modifications of those technologies and techniques or completely innovative designs.