These incorporate cooling and heating elements as well as circulation pumps, pre-conditioning, pressurisation and blow down.

All these elements can be varied and adapted to your project needs.

Some types of project fluid conditioning can apply to are:

  • Combustion
  • Electrification
  • Production
  • Thermal Shock
  • Custom

Combustion Projects

Our traditional conditioning systems were aimed at combustion engines and testing. The valve manifold assembly  is designed to provide temperature control of engine coolant, engine oil and turbo/intercooler (or other cooling circuits) in engine test applications, by controlling the flow of process water feed and return using bypass and balance valves.

The compact module supports the rapid control of coolant flow through the three independent bed water circuits. These circuits are usually connected to suitably sized heat exchangers, which in turn are connected to the engine circuits.

Sierra can offer a cooling post which is a single unit that integrates the valve manifold assembly and appropriately sized heat exchangers.

Electrification Projects

From our expertise at producing fluid conditioning circuits, we have been providing heating / cooling circulation products for electric projects for several years.

Typically the e-motor, battery and inverter require cooling, often from independent circuits, these may have differing temperatures, flow rates and pressures, cooling and heating elements.

For e-motor sub system testing extremes of temperatures have been requested from -40C to 120C, these are achieved using multi stage solutions and can include a combination of air and fluid circulation, thermal enclosures and the like.

Production Projects

Sierra can also supply you with pre-conditioning systems for the testing of your engine, gearbox or test piece, where a buffer tank is heated using electric elements or cooled using a chilled loop, then a pump system fills the test piece with hot water/ glycol to enable faster test starts.

Following the test completion the water and glycol is blown down using compressed air to empty the fluid from the engine into the buffer tank and the temperature is maintained ready for the next cycle.

Thermal Shock Projects

These are typically used for severe thermal shocking of combustion engines, but can be used for whichever product or test piece.

Using a duty cycle model, we will design for you a thermal shock system that effectively cycles between hot fluid and cold fluid to mechanically stress the engine or UUT.

A significant volume or reservoir of cold fluid is produced by circulating fluid through a chiller, at the test point this chilled fluid is pumped through the UUT replacing the cooling fluid. Once chilled sufficiently the process is flipped back and the chilled reservoir is chilled down for the next cycle. 

Custom Projects

SCP have provided conditioning systems for other test pieces such as gearboxes or axles, these may be heated or cooled to the required level and then circulated at different flow rates, sometimes for the planned detriment of the test piece.