These ultracapacitors have a massively increased power density compared with conventional capacitors and this bank stores 50 kJ.
“Continue reading” for more photos and details on these capacitors on steroids.
They fit between batteries and capacitors in usage and these ones are 2600 Farads 2.5 V each with 6 in series. This gives a nominal 15 V at 600A.
Shown here delivering about 17kJ (which is 40% of capacity) to melt a wire coil. Voltage drops from about 14 to 10.8V (voltmeter on right) and current peak was ?227A. The unusual perspective is to cater for the red clamp meters angle.
Top range Peugot cars use similar to assist motor restarts in stop start driving. There are experimental buses in China that uses these for power and partial recharge at each stop.
Specifications are in this datasheet. Peak current is 600 A and stored energy 8 kJ. If wired in parallel the specifications would be 3600 A at 2.5V. Plenty enough for spot welding. I plan to try a parallel setup. Total capacitance is a huge 15.6 kF.
Related pages
DC Spot welder High power spotwelder using ultracapacitors
AC spot welder The AC version provides 800 A but has fine control
Pulse power Electrical explosive effects with high voltage capacitors
Try something else
Big Fresnel lens melts brick
Comet McNaught it was a big one here in the southern hemisphere
External links
Ultracapacitors Wiki
Resistance Spot Welding Wiki
Google+ post (mine) on ultracapacitors
Google+ post (mine) on ultracapacitor related spot welding
Photo Date: May 13th, 2012