With the announcement of EEStor's permittivity certification milestone in May 2009 behind us, observers are watching closely to learn what comes next from the Cedar Park, TX company. Zenn Motor Company's VP of Engineering, Mike Bergeron added a bit of background on this topic via a recent interview with me this week. But Bergeron and Zenn are bound by their tech agreement to avoid being too verbose.To see if I could learn more, I contacted Tom Weir at EEStor Inc. this morning. First, EEStor now has visibility to the necessary funding commitments that should allow them to meet their anticipated near-term objectives. Second, Weir says they are moving further along their path. Tom Weir:
"Our objective is to complete component testing by September 2009. In parallel, we will be finalizing our second objective which consists of the assembly processes necessary to deliver production quality components and/or EESU's by the end of 2009. "
Just what does component testing consist of exactly? To answer this question, I turned to a subject matter expert with several years experience in capacitor manufacturing who preferred not to be named for this article. ( However, I can reveal his username at TheEEStory.com forums as none other than CapacitorMan.) The standard component tests for capacitor manufacturers consist of the following:
1) Capacitance
2) Dissipation Factor
3) Insulation Resistance
4) Voltage Coefficient (measuring capacitance vs voltage)
5) Temperature Coefficient (measuring capacitance vs temperature)
6) Voltage breakdown
Capman went on to say that a piezoelectric coefficient test, though not widely performed elsewhere, would be important in EEStor's case "if they have the size capacitor they are talking about. " He went on, "a piezoelectric coefficient test would be important for them because it measures how much the ceramic moves when you shock it with a high voltage. "
As speculated previously, the pace of information coming out of EEStor Inc. appears to be on the uptick as it zeros in on the completion of the commercialization of the EESU.
To discuss this article, please visit:
http://theeestory.com/topics/2044
7 comments:
In otherwords they still will not have a prototype by the end of 2009.
@thubten, be careful, you really don't know what you are talking about. A "production quality" unit and "prototype" are two very different animals.
Eestorm true I don't know what I am talking about, but I can read. The quote does not say "unit" it says "components." If it said unit then I would not have made the comment. The components will have to be put together in hope of the promised performance. We were supposed to have prototypes by now.
In fact it does not say components either. It says assembly processes. Is there a prototype available?
you all should see an interesting article in physorg.org testing glass capacitors, and measured very high levels of capacitance.
http://www.physorg.com/news160757818.html
Still there is a high level of....well you know, material conducts to components, which conducts to processes which takes you to prototypes which leads you to experimental units and finally a viable product.....ufff!.
Many thigs can happen in the middle
if they are able to do it will be great but a lot of theoretical works points the difficulty of the physiscs involved, good luck Mr. Weir.
We are at least 2 years from a official release.
Post a Comment