The Chroma 19020 dielectric withstand test instrument from MDL Technologies can boost productivity by measuring Hipot leakage current on ten channels at the same time. The new instrument can be used to carry out AC/DC Hipot and insulation resistance safety tests in a production environment, producing significant savings in speed and space.

On a production line the items to be tested are often close together, with a risk of being damaged if high voltage is applied to adjacent components at the same time. The 19020 eliminates this risk by synchronising its high voltage outputs.

A master / slave link enables up to ten units to be controlled, making 100 channels in total. The unit also includes powerful flashover and open / short circuit check functions.

Also available from MDL is the twin-port Chroma 19032, a five-in-one production safety analyser that can perform AC/DC Hipot, insulation resistance, grounding resistance and dynamic leakage current testing. Suitable for testing medical equipment, it accepts a range of plug-in cards with different human body equivalent circuits as specified in the safety directives.

Another dielectric withstand test instrument, and one of the smallest on the market, is the Chroma 19070. This can perform either AC Hipot tests only or AC / DC / IR Hipot testing with insulation resistance measurements to 5kV AC and 6kV DC, with a resolution of 1V.

“We can also supply higher voltage Hipot testers up to 20kV DC,” said MDL managing director Mark Lucock.

Drivers are a key element in the performance and reliability of LEDs, and an extensive range of equipment for testing LED drivers is now available from MDL Technologies. The Chroma instruments include programmable AC and DC sources, high precision power meters and an LED load simulator specifically designed for LED power drivers.

The 61500 Series advanced programmable AC power sources have output powers ranging from 500 to 2000 VA and offer AC, DC and AC+DC output modes. With a programmable voltage and frequency slew rate, they can measure RMS voltage, current, power, PF, VA, VAR, crest factor, peak and inrush current.

The Chroma 66200 Series are high precision digital power meters with a wide range of voltage, current and power parameters. User-defined criteria provide automatic pass/fail indications, and THD, inrush current and energy measurements are available.

Also offered are complete automated test systems suitable for use in R & D and quality assurance qualification as well as on the production line. One example is the Chroma 58158 AC/DC LED integrated test system which combines a programmable AC power source and digital power meter, and can integrate with a flexible optical test platform equipped with integrating sphere, photo detector etc.

MDL can also supply a 46 page guide to testing LED power drivers. Particularly useful because of the dearth of test standards for LED drivers, the guide produced by Chroma gives test specifications for a range of output parameters, such as output voltage and current, ripple current, dimming current and turn-on overshoot current. It also lists useful definitions of the relevant terminology.