Growing military power needs for advanced electronics require rugged, uninterruptable power supply (UPS) systems that can operate in harsh environments and Acumentrics is finding ways to keep critical systems on line in an affordable manner for budget constrained times, a company official said.
For example, coming in 2013 is Acumentrics’ COTS Select, a rugged-lite commercial-off-the-shelf UPS to fill the niche between expensive, but highly-reliable, very rugged, UPS built for harsh environments, and lower cost COTS products that can have a high failure rate due to varying temperatures, dirt and dust, and rough handling, Steve Graves, vice president of Sales and Marketing, said in an interview.
COTS Select is “rugged-lite, really designed for a fairly benign environment,” he said, but Acumentrics designed it to be rugged enough to be sent to a theater, bounced around on the back of a truck, subject to some shock, dust and dirt, and yet be fairly well protected when used in a tent or shed.
This new product UPS came from listening to customer feedback, understanding military needs and realizing federal budget challenges. Acumentrics has a history of developing highly reliable UPS products in a wide range, including Rugged-UPS for military, industrial power supply, power conditioning and battery backup.
Acumentrics Holding Corp., headquartered in Westwood, Mass., has two subsidiaries, Acumentrics Rugged-UPS™ and Acumentrics solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC).
To keep military systems running, the UPS systems take in electrical power from almost any generator, and smooth out the fluctuations. In a theater like Afghanistan or Iraq there is no grid quality power such as in the United States, Graves said. The UPS output is a “real pure sine wave” of clean, steady power with a battery backup, required by today’s electronics–sophisticated routers, servers and communications gear. Internally, the company’s unique Flo-Thru ™ design maximizes internal cooling and minimizing noise while sealing the electronic components from damaging elements.
The “B-52” of Acumentrics’ Rugged-UPS is a big, heavy, but very reliable 2,000 Watt unit, Graves said.
This summer saw the release of the 1,000 W Rugged Blade UPS is a smaller and lighter–28 pounds–system able to support combat mission communications and surveillance, as well as leaving more space for soldiers to put more electronics or food, fuel, water, and bullets.
Rugged Blade provides 1250VA/1000W of AC or DC output power, and is scalable up to 8 kilowatts. Rugged Blade UPS is about 60 percent lighter than the company’s current 1250VA product with the optional lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery pack and 33.5 pounds with the lead acid battery pack.
Rugged Blade accepts a wide range of voltage and frequencies and providing clean, reliable AC and DC power as well as seamless input transition from AC shore power to DC power to the battery.
Batteries and battery failures are huge concerns for the military, Graves said. “What we did was investigate and found Li-ion batteries were lighter, had a longer life, and could be stored longer, however they were more expensive than lead acid batteries.
Acumentrics’ Rugged Blade UPS offers battery options: light, long cycle life Li-Ion or low maintenance, valve-regulated lead acid batteries. The batteries are enclosed in a user-replaceable battery pack for rapid, hot-swap field replacement. The battery pack is also backwards-compatible with other units.
Another power source is addressed by Acumentrics’ SOFC and works on fuel cells, which perform through a chemical reaction that continues as long as fuel is provided. The unit develops and manufactures a line of clean, reliable electric power generators with DC or AC outputs up to 10kW. These electrical power generators apply a proprietary tubular, ceramics-based fuel cell technology to serve remote, off-the-grid and military applications
“We’re focused on remote power,” Graves said of fuel cells, working with the military. It is also commercialized, and while the company continues to work on reducing costs, the cells are cost competitive.
Acumentrics Rugged UPS units are certified to military standards, and with the company’s ISO 9001:2008 certification.
The company has 60,000 units deployed globally on military and industrial sites for aircraft, C4ISR, communications, unmanned aerial systems, ships, submarines, armored vehicles and industrial applications.
For more information: www.acumentrics.com.