Take a look at this beauty Joe is working on in our electronics workshop.
This is a BAE Systems Hybridrive, Propulsion Control System (PCS) for an electric bus. It is where the power from the onboard batteries is converted from DC to AC, then fed to the TB100 electric traction motor to propel the bus.
Joe, our technical services manager, is carrying out some cold-checks on the unit. He's checking for some common faults we see with these units before we move to a power-on test.
The main printed circuit board (PCB) that you can see might seem quite large. It is, it's one of the the largest PCBs I think we've ever seen being 600mm x 400mm in size. The whole unit is a remarkable feat of engineering, beautifully machined casing, spotlessly clean inside considering it's been strapped to the underside of a London bus for the past 10 years.
Bus and coach operators do cite availability of replacement traction motors and propulsion control units as an issue. Fortunately there is another option, refurbishing the failed ones.
It's great for UK jobs too as we do this work in the UK instead of the units having to be shipped overseas. Creating jobs in fault finding and repair skills is good as far as I'm concerned. We need more with current supply chain shortages. It's also good for sustainability too, I've no idea how much CO2 was used in creating one of these PCS units but I'm going to bet that the repair & refurbishment process uses only 2-3% of what creating a new one does.
#sustainability
#repairdontreplace
#electricbus
#electricvehicles
#DrivingAGreenerFuture
#zeroemission
#maintenanceandrepair
A more sustainable approach to electric vehicle component repairs.
