Design considerations for static auxiliary supplies

On rail passenger vehicles, a variety of electrical equipment is fitted to provide the appropriate level of facilities and comfort for the user. Static inverters are now the accepted means for deriving supplies compatible with the demands of these auxiliary loads. The modern auxiliary power converter has to satisfy the requirement for low cost, low weight, compact equipment with the conflicting demands of higher power and improved output waveforms often needed. In addition, the equipment must have high reliability and advanced fault diagnosis facilities. The author discusses the means open to the designer to find the compromise which best meets each customer´s specification