STEVO Electric started in 2003 with the development of test equipment for DC high-speed circuit breakers (DC-HSCB). The product line was called BALTO and has gained worldwide market acceptance in the railway industry.
Currently, BALTO is the leading test unit for DC-HSCB with references in North and South America, Europe, China, Southeast-Asia and Africa. Today’s BALTO series uses batteries and ultra capacitors to store energy. The power units contain sophisticated electronics and act as current sources. They draw the energy from the batteries and ultra capacitors and inject a high current into the DC-HSCB. This type of test equipment is often referred to as primary injection test equipment. Up to 40,000A of DC current can be generated to test the DC-HSCB.
In 2016, STEVO Electric launched its BALTO CONTROLLER, a test unit for protection relays. This type of equipment is referred to as secondary injection test equipment. The BALTO CONTROLLER can be used as a stand-alone unit for testing protection relays as well as in conjunction with the BALTO Modular for testing DC-HSCB.
Primary injection test equipment
STEVO Electric provides two versions of the BALTO Compact that generate currents up to 3,000A or 4,000A. The compact version can optionally be equipped with hardware and software to perform secondary injections for the testing of protection relays.
The BALTO Compact consists of two modules, the common control unit with batteries and an ultra-capacitor, and a power unit. The Compact series is very easy to handle and was developed for applications on rolling stock.
STEVO Electric supplies the BALTO Modular 3,000-30,000A, which generates up to 15,000A on a single trolley, and up to 30,000A with two trolleys in a master-slave configuration.
The company also provides the BALTO Modular 4,000A-40,000A, which produces up to 20,000A on a single trolley, and up to 40,000A with two trolleys.
The BALTO Modular consists of a trolley equipped with batteries and ultra capacitors, a maximum of five power modules per trolley and a BALTO CONTROLLER. This transportable unit was developed mainly for use in substations.
Features of the BALTO series
BALTO products comply with EN 50123-2 and IEC 61992-2 standards (slope of 200 A/sec during 5 sec for accurate measurement of Ids current).
They come with a user-friendly, industry-grade touchscreen control unit, which provides accurate graphical representations of the test results. All results are stored into memory for retrieval at a later time.
All models provide auto-diagnostics and auto-calibration functions. An RJ45 and USB connector is available for retrieval of test results.
Standard tests of the BALTO series
The BALTO primary injection test set can measure the Ids, di/dt, opening time and voltage drop / resistance of DC high-speed circuit breakers. It can also be used to calibrate auxiliary equipment.
The tests provide accurate measurements according to IEC 61992-2 (200 A/sec slope)
Options of the BALTO series
STEVO Electric offers the BALTO Win software for offline processing of test results, as well as a tool for calibrating the BALTO systems.
The company also offers tools for easy handling of the BALTO modular and different types of bus-bar systems. Hardware and software customisation is done on request.
Secondary injection test equipment
The BALTO CONTROLLER enables quick and easy testing of DC protection relays. It provides outputs ranging from 60mV to 10V.
The product offers flexible simulation of current patterns, including curves from standard BALTO tests, exponential curves, and broken line curves for testing functions such as di/dt, DDL + Delta I and DDL + Delta T.
The BALTO CONTROLLER can be used in conjunction with the BALTO Modular, and its supported vendors include Secheron, Siemens, and Rwaytech.