Chroma ATE Announces New 17200 Programmable Charge/Discharge Tester for Lithium-Ion Batteries

Oct. 25, 2011 - PRLog -- Chroma ATE, a world leading supplier of electronic test, measurement and manufacturing equipment, has announced its new Chroma 17200 Programmable Charge / Discharge Tester. The Chroma 17200 series is a precision charge / discharge test instrument specifically designed for Lithium-ion secondary batteries.  High accuracy output and measurement channels ensure long term repetitive test results.  It is capable of supporting various charge/discharge test modes such as CV (Constant Voltage), CC (Constant Current) and CP (Constant Power). These optimized features are typically required to perform cell reliability verification (such as battery cycle life test), the study of material properties, product research and development, production incoming / outgoing inspection or balancing, quality control, and safety evaluation.

The modularized multi-channel architecture offers both flexibility and expandability, catering to cycle test requirements.  The Chroma 17200 series is composed of a mainframe with 5 two-channel plug-in modules that may operate independently or paralleled offering the most flexibility between high current and high channel count testing, making it a versatile solution for laboratory testing.  This modularitiy yields several advantages including a small footprint, improved and incremental power densities, and ease of hardware maintenance or expansion.

Each module has an embedded CPU that allows isolated instruction execution per channel. Once a test profile is created and  transferred from the programming console, each channel can discretely operate and back up the test results locally or uploaded via Ethernet to an external computer. Therefore, an overloaded network or a power outage will not compromise data transfer.

When used with the Chroma BatteryPro software, flexible functions and programming allows the rapid creation of  test recipes for individual or a group of channels and as a single independent channel or as a high current paralleled channel set.  The application field covers varied Lithium-ion battery or battery module characteristic tests which were formulated to meet the versatile test requirements for laboratory and manufacturing environments.

For safety, several protection features such as, cell polarity check, over voltage, over current, over capacity and loop (contacts and current path) resistance monitoring are provided to safeguard each cell and its surroundings.

To ensure the continuity of extended duration analysis such as life cycle testing, the 17200 can be paired with redundant Chroma 62000B DC power supplies. This innovative design assures the stability and continuity of each test. The 62000B was crafted for work stations that are sensitive to power failures, such as system servers, burn-in, life-test or longevity testing that cannot be interrupted. In the unlikely event of a power supply failure, the parallel N+1 redundancy architecture assures continuous operation. A power module is easily hot-swappable eliminating down time.

Availability
The Chroma 17200 series is immediately available to purchase directly from Chroma ATE, Inc. by visiting their website, http://www.chromaus.com, or calling 1-800-478-2026.

About Chroma ATE
Founded in 1984, Chroma is a respected world leading manufacturer of complete Electronic Test and Measurement Solutions for commercial, automotive, military and government industries.  Utilizing in-house Automated Handling and Manufacturing Execution System (MES) expertise, Chroma specializes in integrated and fully automated turn-key electronic test and manufacturing solutions for green technologies including LED, solar cell / module and Electric Vehicle (EV) as well as battery formation, test & grading production solutions.  In the USA Chroma is headquartered in Irvine CA, with worldwide engineering service offices in the United States, Taiwan (corporate headquarters), Europe, China, and Japan.  For more information, visit Chroma’s website at http://www.chromaus.com.

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Chroma is a world leading own brand supplier in electronic test and measurement equipment and systems. Chroma provides integrated and customized turnkey solutions in test and measurement instruments, automatic testing and manufacturing execution systems.