Small Fuel Cells 2008 -- AMREL Debuts Their New "Customer Driven" FRA With the First LCR Metering Capability

ATLANTA, GA--(Marketwire - May 1, 2008) - AMREL/AMERICAN RELIANCE debuts its new "Customer Driven" Frequency Response Analyzer (FRA) at the 10th Annual International Conference of Small Fuel Cells 2008. In 2006, AMREL introduced the FIRST FRA under $5k to the test and measurement market. Although AMREL's FRA has evolved in AMREL's traditional "customer-driven" fashion, the feature that has "not evolved" is the price tag -- still under $5k and holding.

Over the last two years, AMREL has collected invaluable application data through close working relationships with customers currently using AMREL's FRA to characterize batteries or fuel cells. This customer feedback was the catalyst for the evolution of the New AMREL FRA. As the low-cost, hi-performance leader in FRA solutions, AMREL's FRA boasts advanced features at a low cost. Continuing to bring value, AMREL expands the capabilities of the FRA's Software (AMREL FRA IM TOOL) and adds LCR Meter capabilities. AMREL's FRA with LCR Metering capability is another industry first.

Data analysis and electrochemistry diagnostics were first on AMREL's customer's features "wish list." In response, the FRA has incorporated PAN and ZOOM capabilities to its Nyquist and Bode plots. Additionally, the user can test the fuel cell at various pressure, temperature, humidity and stoichiometry(utilization) set points and analyze the impedance behavior of the cell/stack under different dc loads. The FRA can be programmed to automatically run at 10 load levels and generate corresponding Nyquist plots for analysis. Each plot is superimposed and color-coded onto a single graph for a composite analysis of the relationship between temperature, pressure, humidity and utilization versus dc load. The test data can be stored for lifetime monitoring and statistics of stack performance.

The EIS analysis/modeling method emphasizes the importance of ac perturbation signal levels, and suggests that at varying ac amplitudes, different impedance data will result. AMREL's FRA users also resonate with this concept, and their feedback evolved the FRA to include ac amplitude sweep. The adjustable ac amplitude and dc load level auto-sweep adds another testing dimension for users conducting fuel cell and battery tests.

The FRA can measure series and parallel inductance, series and parallel capacitance, resistance, Q and D factor-providing another analysis tool. Furthermore, the inductance and capacitance measurement capabilities translate into benefits in EIS modeling.

For more info visit booth #114 @ SFC2008.

Contact Information: Contact: e-mail: pdinfo@amrel.com (800) 654-9838 AMREL/AMERICAN RELIANCE