SEPTA Case Study: Major Metropolitan Transit System Uses Vitrek Power Analyzer to Monitor High-Power DC Feeders
- - - Challenges Personnel needed a reliable, portable instrument to accurately measure and record the current on each feeder over a selected time period. - Overview The Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) operates the transit system throughout the city of Philadelphia, extending into the surrounding counties in Pennsylvania and across the Delaware River into New Jersey. A major component of this system is the network of subways and commuter trains. Power for the operation of these trains is provided by an array of substations distributed throughout the region. One [...]
Ultrasonic Imaging
Ultrasonic Imaging Customer Case The customer is digitizing signals returned from an ultrasonic transducer used in the study of cardiac phenomena. At the moment, a 5 MHz transducer is being used, but the customer wants to upgrade to a 10 MHz transducer in the near future. This transducer will give him better spacial resolution. The customer needs one channel of very fast (100 MSPS), preferably 12-bit A/D conversion which is controlled by an external trigger signal. Bandwidth of the analog front-end of the A/D card or system must be very flat up to 15 or 20 MHz. The application [...]
Capacitance Sensing Provides Two Ways to Measure EV Battery Plate Thickness
MTI Instruments has released an application note that explains how to use capacitance to measure the thickness of the lithium battery plates in electric vehicles (EVs). Manufacturers need to check these plates for thickness before calendaring them together to ensure that the overall battery diameter is within specifications. In EV batteries, lithium ion compounds are applied to either a copper plate substrate (cathode) or an aluminum substrate (anode plate). These conductive plates are separated by a dielectric. MTI Instruments, a global supplier of precision measurement solutions, makes capacitance sensors that can measure thicknesses materials down to nanometers. Moreover, MTI [...]
Ultrasound Tissue Imaging
Ultrasound Tissue Imaging Customer Case This customer is building a system to be used as a test station for examining human tissue for disease. Diseased organs differ from healthy organs in ways that can be measured via the echoes of ultrasound transmissions which are passed through the tissues. The customer's system will build a 3D image of the tissue under examination. In order to obtain a clear ultrasound image of the object being studied, the successive data captures have to be aligned to eliminate a distorted image. Jitter which would result from an asynchronous triggering is not acceptable. The [...]
Ultrasonic Medical Imaging System
Ultrasonic Medical Imaging System Customer Case A customer wants to construct an ultrasonic medical imaging system based on a transducer array. A central ultrasonic generation transducer generates a burst of ultrasonic energy which travels towards a tissue specimen. Echoes reflected off the tissue specimen are simultaneously detected by an array of 48 ultrasonic receiver transducers arranged in a dish-like pattern. The customer must simultaneously digitize all 48 signals and download them to PC RAM as quickly as possible. The customer requires 8 bit vertical resolution and would like to sample at 40 MS/s, but 20 MS/s would be acceptable. [...]
White Paper: Fundamentals of Electrical Safety Testing – Tech Briefs Whitepaper
Part 1 - Functions & Features of Advanced Hipot Testers Introduction Electrical safety testers - often referred to as "hipot" testers - are an integral part of electrical and electronic equipment manufacturing. Hipot testers get their name from the high potential (high voltage) they produce to perform dielectric withstand and insulation resistance tests. In addition to these tests, many hipot testers provide accurate low-resistance measurements and low-resistance/high-current outputs to test ground resistance and ground bond integrity. Hipot testing has long been a standard procedure for assuring the electrical safety of electronic equipment. Early commercial hipot testers were actually [...]
Vitrek’s Latest Product Catalog Is Now Available
Vitrek is pleased to announce that our 2020 product catalog is now available to our customers across industries, including manufacturing, calibration and testing labs, medical and healthcare, aerospace and military, and other industries that require electrical testing and safety products of uncompromising quality. We provide high voltage measurement equipment, electrical safety (hipot) testing instruments, power analyzers, and other products, including our newest series of DC loads, that stand up to some of the most demanding environments. […]
How Aviation MROs Can Maximize Labor Efficiency and Asset Uptime
MTI Instruments is supplying the aviation industry with solutions to the skilled labor shortage and reduced equipment availability. No, our Lockport, IL company isn’t providing aviation MROs with more flight line personnel, engine mechanics, or Boeing 737 MAX aircraft. Instead, we’re delivering precision measurement solutions that can help MROs to maximize labor productivity and asset uptime. Solving the Skilled Labor Shortage Aviation MROs have a choice. They can wait for training programs to provide new workers, poach workers from competitors, invest in robots, or look for ways to gain greater efficiency from existing labor assets. About 18 months ago, [...]
Laser Scanning Microscope Interface
Laser Scanning Microscope Interface Customer Case This customer needs to interface a scanning laser microscope to their PC so that image data can be acquired and stored. Data is received from the laser microscope via an optical sensor at 1300 line scans per image. Each scan has an 8 ms duration, but 2/3 of that time is scan time and 1/3 is flyback time (dead time). The customer has determined that a 1 us sample width (or faster) would be adequate. There is also a price vs. performance issue - the customer has a tight budget and wants the [...]
Microsoft Windows 7 Security Advisory and Impact on MTI PBS-4100+ Users
Learn about this important security advisory and its impact on MTI-PBS-4100+ users. What is the Microsoft Windows 7 Security Advisory? Microsoft will no longer provide maintenance on Windows Version 7 in January of this year after 10-years of supporting the product. Microsoft does this across their product lines (not just Windows) in order to continue to evolve their products and invest their resources on the more recent versions. This means that Microsoft will no longer release any updates for that version of Windows, including bug fixes or security updates. For details on this activity by Microsoft, please visit their [...]



