W.S.G. Isaac Newton

I did my internship at Sensata Technologies Holland, located in Hengelo. Sensata is a company that operates worldwide in 16 countries and operates in various markets ranging from car engine sensors to telecom. The Hengelo site is focused on the development and manufacturing of electrical and electronic vehicle components. At Sensata, I worked in the Heavy Vehicle and Off-Road (HVOR) department. This department focuses on the electromechanical design of all kinds of technologies applied to heavy and off-road vehicles. One of the projects the HVOR department is working on is the electrification of trucks. To this extent, they are currently developing High Voltage Distribution Units (HVDUs). HVDUs are boxes located on the electric truck, which regulate the communication and current flow between the charging station and the battery pack of the vehicle. Inside the HVDUs contactors are used to regulate the current paths. Contactors are large electromechanical switches which operate similarly to relays but at higher power. To perform predictive and preventive maintenance, Sensata’s customers require detailed lifecycle data of the contractors. To this end, Sensata wants to perform Accelerated Life Testing (ALT) on the contactors. The most crucial characteristic of the contactors is their insulation resistance since they should form a resistance barrier between the battery pack and the rest of the truck when they are in an open position. To collect ALT data, I designed, built and tested a setup that can wear down 8 contactors in a controlled manner, meanwhile monitoring the insulation resistance of the individual contactors. The setup is controlled by an Arduino Mega, in combination with a laptop running a Python script. During the internship, I broadened my programming and electronics skills. I experienced the company to be down-to-earth and very supportive; I received a lot of support from numerous colleagues from various departments and sites. If you are interested in doing your internship here and you have any questions, feel free to reach out to me.