Over the Road refrigerated truck bodies – providing 3 phase AC power in NEMA 4x chassis
The Dimensions brand of inverters manufactured by Sensata Technologies, Inc. out of St. Paul, MN has always had a sales philosophy of starting with what the customer was trying to provide power to and what those electrical load characteristics required to support the end customer’s mission. The key value this brand delivers is to use all of our technical expertise to design and manufacture an auxiliary power inverter that is successful for unique customer applications. For lower priority / usage applications Sensata also offers a value brand of inverters in lower power wattages.
We have been pleased to be selected by Johnson Refrigerated Truck Bodies (JRTB) to provide the 3 phase AC power they require in their electric product offerings. The environment for mobile power application that Johnson Refrigerated Truck Bodies presented was unique as well as requiring three phase AC power. To begin our journey in learning the customer’s application needs we started with an existing inverter to get an expanded understanding on more than just the electric power needs. A few of those characteristics were: run time, outside weather exposure, status feedback and control integration. We ended up designing a NEMA 4X chassis type to handle the outside elements for the three phase 6kw inverter.
During this discovery phase, the magic happens when the two technical teams, key supplier and the customer’s, communicate together to share application knowledge, requirements, and what is possible for alternatives to have a result that meets the end customer’s needs. The JRTB technical team was focused and excellent at presenting their needs. While there is always a learning curve for both teams that includes field experience as well, together, we have been able to fine tune our product design to fully support the electric refrigeration loads JRTB has presented. This collaboration by the two teams, has given us a very high expectation for this electric system and its continued success with the end customer in the field. The true test of any product application, regardless of the specifications and internal test results, is how successful is the end customer with your part of the solution? That is why Sensata offers the 90 day free product trial for qualified applications, whether the need is for a three phase or single phase inverter or high voltage DC, to place the power inverter directly in the specific application to see how both the inverter and the system runs together in the appropriate environment. That field trial experience is extremely valuable and provides excellent data points to get to a final solution that meets the end customers’ expectations.