MEASUREMENT & MONITORING
HELMHOLTZ COIL SYSTEMS
BARTINGTON
BARTINGTON INSTRUMENTS ADDS HELMHOLTZ
COIL SYSTEMS TO ITS RANGE
Bartington Instruments has now added
Helmholtz coil systems to its range. These
generate precise magnetic fields ideal
for calibration of magnetometers and
compasses, and are currently used at
Bartington’s own calibration facility.
Helmholtz coils are available in several
diameters, from 350mm to 2m. These
are supported by a power amplifier and
complete control system compatible with
every coil in the range. Operating in DC
and AC, the three-channel power amplifier
delivers up to 29A at DC and frequencies
up to 5kHz. Amplitudes and frequencies are
coil-dependent, with smaller coils achieving
fields exceeding 1mT at DC, and in excess of
100µT at 5kHz.
The control system can be expanded to
include a closed-loop control module. This
provides active feedback for cancellation
of external field variations, making it
possible to use the coils in a manufacturing
environment. A precise fluxgate sensor is
also used as part of the closed-loop system
to monitor field disturbances within the coil,
achieving field stability of a few nT.
The system may be computer controlled via
the addition of a National Instruments™ data
acquisition card and LabVIEW™ software.
By using source code that we provide,
you can adapt the software to your exact
requirements, enabling seamless integration
into your testing and manufacturing
procedures.
These systems benefit from reduced
orthogonality errors, which facilitates
precise calibration of optical range-finding
equipment, magnetic field sensors and
compasses inside consumer electronics, and
magnetometer packages found in oil and gas
industry directional drilling tools. The larger
coils in the range are suitable for calibration
and testing of satellite subassemblies and
CubeSats.
In addition to Helmholtz coil systems,
Bartington Instruments also provides
equipment for magnetic field surveys of
proposed installation sites, in order to achieve
the best possible system performance.
www.bartington.com/
Issue 40 PECM
141