Leakage Laboratory

IPETRONIK is one of the few companies in Europe to have been accredited by the Federal Motor Transport Authority as a test laboratory for determining R134a leakage rates. The accreditation was granted on 20.12.2007 and was valid until October 2018, authorizing the company to carry out leakage measurements in accordance with Directive 2006/40/EC including Regulation 706/2007 on automotive air conditioning systems and their components within the scope of KBA type approval. Since 2017, this type approval is no longer required by the KBA for air conditioning systems, as in Europe only new registrations of vehicles with a refrigerant with a global warming potential (GWP) <150 are permitted. Ipetronik stands for environmental protection, because partially fluorinating greenhouse gases have not yet been completely eliminated, as vehicles with the refrigerant R134a are still on the roads. Here, too, the leakage rates of components must be kept as low as possible and the GWP must be reduced, for example, by using refrigerant mixtures. Ipetronik has been operating the leakage laboratory since 2017 in order to continuously drive improvements in sealing concepts in the field of air conditioning and to detect faulty components at an early stage before they go into series production at the automotive manufacturer. Ipetronik thus makes a decisive contribution to ensuring a high level of quality of the air conditioning systems and ease of service to the customer.

With its NVH system test bench, IPETRONIK offers the possibility of recording and analyzing the noise development at the HVAC (air conditioning unit) using in-house acoustic measurement technology. For this purpose, microphones are placed in the near field of local sound sources and, if necessary, the so-called acoustic camera (GFAI, see figure on the right) is used for sound localization. Sensors for vibration and pulsation of the refrigerant can also be placed in the system.

Thermal management is a key topic in vehicle development that is taken into account in the development process right from the start. Valuable development steps can be taken at an early stage on a TC5:E5hermomanagement system test bench. By integrating calculation models and simulators/emulators, qualitative statements on systems, components and control strategies for cooling, heating and refrigeration circuits could be made at an early stage of development (without a vehicle). In addition, early testing of operating strategies is possible. In further phases of development (including series production support), problems can be reproduced and causes investigated in a reproducible environment.

Our range of services also includes system test benches and individual air conditioning modules. Complete vehicle air conditioning circuits with their components and various refrigerants can be tested under real environmental conditions on system test benches. Thanks to their modular design, the test benches can be flexibly adapted to different air conditioning systems, thus reducing set-up times. The use of so-called test carts plays a particularly important role here. This means that a new circuit can be set up on its trolley outside the test stand while tests are still being carried out on the test stand with another circuit. This not only makes more effective use of the setup time, but also reduces the downtime of the test stand. The necessary media supply modules for air conditioning and coolant circuits (IPEsim) can be individually assembled and operated according to customer requirements. Temperature, humidity and air mass flow are set with a very high control quality and accuracy to ensure reproducible test results.

Thermal management is a key topic in vehicle development that is taken into account in the development process right from the start. Valuable development steps can be taken at an early stage on a thermal management system test bench. By integrating calculation models and simulators/emulators, qualitative statements on systems, components and control strategies for cooling, heating and refrigeration circuits could be made at an early stage of development (without the vehicle). In addition, early testing of operating strategies is possible. In further phases of development (including series production support), problems can be reproduced and causes investigated in a reproducible environment.

In the age of e-mobility, the refrigerant circuit serves not only to provide comfort air conditioning for the passenger cabin, but also to cool the electric drive train and the battery. It thus becomes one of the central subsystems of the vehicle and must be taken into account from the very beginning of development. Since neither vehicles nor subsystems are usually available at this early stage, the ducts, evaporators and other heat exchangers are built geodesically. The powertrain and battery are represented by emulators, and conditioned air is applied to the indoor evaporators. The air path for the condenser simulates temperature and driving speed. This allows caloric (performance) evaluation of the system, testing of different interconnections, comparison of different components, and development of operating strategies.

The measurement of thermodynamic properties of refrigerant circuit components is of great importance in the development of automotive components (and systems). Our measurement results are often used as a basis for decision-making for series production as well as for the analysis of optimization potentials or unique selling propositions. As a manufacturer- independent test center with many years of cross- industry experience in the field of thermodynamics, IPETRONIK offers component measurements including well-founded evaluations. OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers as well as development partners benefit from our services.

In the modern development of vehicle air conditioning and in connection with thermal management, the technical design or the validation of the function of the refrigerant compressor is the focus of the holistic development process. Especially due to the changing requirements in the automotive sector, it is indispensable to reproduce a flawless function of the test item to be tested by means of reliable test bench equipment. Be it in the classic AC mode or in the now increasingly important heat pump mode. The interaction of sustainable hardware in the test bench and the coordinated control in the form of the in-house software IPEmotion make this test bench a unique product in the service sector of the automotive industry.

Component development in "mini format"! The little brother to the IPEcomp is the IPEload auto. As already mentioned with the IPEcomp, this product can be used to determine the properties of the test specimen. Here the focus is more on durability and lifecycle performance. This is realized by means of Raffertests specified in the customer's specifications, or the determination of the test matrix is worked out individually with the expertise of IPEengineering. Due to the small installation space and the resulting low space requirement, this load box can be used for other development-relevant topics around the refrigerant compressor. In conjunction with a separate climatic test cabinet, the test specimen can be subjected to various temperatures, both in the positive and negative Celsius range.

A new type of lifecycle assurance at the component and system level involves the representation and recording of the behavior of foreign bodies within the plant. Due to automated manufacturing and various production processes, sources of defects are increasingly emerging that can have a lasting impact on the quality of the end product. This is exactly where IPEengineering comes in and offers a further component within the scope of its services, with which many properties of an end product can be positively influenced. In cooperation with an independent test laboratory, defined contamination capsules are produced, whose contamination is then introduced into the system to be tested. After completion of the test series, the components of the system are brought to the test laboratory for analysis of the particles contained therein and evaluated.

One of the state of the art topics in the development of electric refrigerant compressors is the analysis of the conductivity, or the influence, of the compressor oil on the stator windings and the associated insulation resistance. With the equipment shown in the picture, a sample can be analyzed automatically and evaluated with the help of the associated software.

In addition to the analysis of the compressor oil, the measurement of the insulation resistance is not only one of the technologically important topics, but also one of the safety and, conversely, product liability of a refrigerant compressor. Here, too, IPETRONIK positions itself centrally in the overall development of the main compressor component. In test methods or test procedures developed with customers, either the entire test item or only its stator is tested for insulation resistance.