New Industry Products

DC-DC Converters have 12V to 160V Input Range for Railway Rolling Stock

November 20, 2019 by Paul Shepard

Flex Power Modules has announced the PKM7500W and PKM7100W, two new series of quarter-brick dc-dc converter modules for powering railway rolling stock equipment. The 50W PKM7500W offers an extremely wide input voltage range of 12V to 160V, while the 100W PKM7100W has an input range of 14V to 160V.

This wide input voltage range means that equipment designers can use just one dc-dc converter for products intended for use anywhere in the world, which makes installation, qualification and aftermarket support easier. Equipment for use in railway rolling stock must meet a wide range of standard input voltages, which varies from country to country.

These nominal voltages are defined in the EN50155 standard, which also sets requirements for handling voltage dips and spikes. This means the lowest voltage a 24V-based system must deal with is in fact 14.4V, and the highest voltage for a 110V-based system is 154V.

Olle Hellgren, Director of Product Management and Business Development at Flex Power Modules, said: “These new modules enable equipment designers to simplify how they handle different countries’ power requirements – saving time and reducing costs.’’

Making them well-suited to use in harsh environments, the modules are fully encapsulated to stop dust, moisture and corrosion, as well as being resistant to vibration – thus improving reliability. They incorporate input under voltage protection, output over current protection, output over voltage protection, and over temperature protection, which enables them to avoid damage to the modules themselves, and the equipment they are powering.

The PKM7100W provides up to 100W output power, at 5V, 12V, 13.8V, 15V, 24V, 48V and 54V output voltages. The PKM7500W provides up to 50W at the same output voltages, as well as 3.3V.

Flex Power Modules will showcase these new products, along with other relevant solutions for the railway industry, on Booth 2040 at the Modern Railways 2019 trade exhibition, held at China National Convention Center in Beijing between 20 – 22 November, 2019.