A surge generator is a transient immunity test system that produces short, high-voltage surges. Surge generators can be classified as impulse voltage generators or impulse current generators. High impulse currents are needed to conduct tests on equipment including lightning arresters, plasma devices, and equipment used in thermonuclear fusion.
Surge Generators and Combination waves
Surge generators send out surge waves, also known as combination waves - powerful spikes in voltage or current. Surge pulses cause electrical devices to short-circuit or malfunction. A combination wave is when two waves form a composite wave and the two waves must account for direction, amplitude, and phase. Test engineers rent surge generators to determine the immunity of a component or system during EMC testing. Eliminating sources of EMI in product design and achieving EMC compliance is essential to ensuring electrical substations will continue to provide power, even in extreme cases like lightning strikes. Combination wave generators have different output voltage ranges that comply with test requirements. Surge voltages can reach several thousands of volts and surge currents can reach several thousands of amps.
Surge Transients
Common causes of surge pulse or combo wave transients include both lightning strikes and electrical switching. A lightning strike, whether it hits an electrical system directly or travels indirectly via wiring, can result in a surge transient. Electrical switching generates transients when connected loads are altered, due to insulation failure, or other miscellaneous faults, and occurs when one load is switched on and the fault causes a surge of energy to travel to other devices.
Surge Wave Test Standards
Evaluation of the ability of test equipment to handle a variety of surges that can be anticipated to occur in low-voltage AC power systems or the way that the surge protective device deals with pulses, can be facilitated by industry test standards:
ATEC offers affordable surge generator rental rates for products from leading manufacturers like
Haefely,
EMC Partner, and
EM Test.