EHT helps customers develop charge/dump systems unique to their application to keep personnel and equipment safe. These systems are based on the EHT Charge/Dump Control, which is a standardized system that outputs control logic to automate the charging, dumping, and grounding of high voltage systems. For low voltage/low storage operation, the control can be operated by front panel switches. For higher voltage/energy storage applications, the control can be operated remotely via fiber-optically isolated gates. Control logic provides signals to turn on AC power, lift the charge/dump relays, and turn on HV power. The Charge/Dump Control is an essential element of laboratory high-voltage safety.

The Charge/Dump Control sends these control signals to relays typically located in the same box as the capacitor bank. EHT recently constructed a custom charge/dump system for an experiment with a pulsed electromagnet. The capacitor bank needed to be discharge between pulses (typically several minutes between shots). In this case, EHT designed and constructed a customized box to contain the capacitor bank and charge/dump relays. This system was designed to be operated at 650 V and contained 56.8 mF of capacitance for a maximum energy storage of 12 kJ. In this case the charging resistance was 6 Ω and the dump resistance was 37.5 Ω.

EHT has built charge/dump systems for high energy storage banks (megajoules) up to several tens of kilovolts. The relays, charge resistance, dump resistance, connectors, and enclosure design can all be customized to meet the needs of your application.