American Reliance Inc. (AMREL, Arcadia, CA) has introduced the PLB/PLW Series, a full-featured programmable electronic load product. The series was designed to free companies from the task of building their own high-power load banks. The PLB Series is available as an air-cooled system with power-dissipation levels ranging from 10kW to 40kW. The PLW Series is available as a water-cooled load bank with power-dissipation levels of 10kW to 300kW.
The PLB/PLW Series has four main operating modes: constant current, voltage, resistance and power. The PLB/PLW Series features 99-point (step) programming for dynamic-load profiling and 256 points of recording and printing capability. An internal transient generator provides four transient testing modes. Other features include improved EMI and EMC immunity, external analog control, 256 programmable slew rates, and triggering.
For PC-based testing applications, the PLB Series has built-in GPIB (IEEE488.2) and RS232 interfaces. The PLW comes in 6kW and 12kW parallel, stackable modules to provide up to 240kW of power dissipation from a single integrated power/controller module. Having both cooling options available allows the end user flexibility in electronic load selection factors such as rack space, cost, reliability and audible noise levels. All loads can be shipped in standard 19" wide rack cabinets as complete systems, or shipped as separate modules.
