Patent ID: 8310273

Claim:
A method for inspecting a power converter that converts a power supplied from an external power supply through a plurality of elements and outputs the converted power to a motor, the method comprising: an active region calculating step of switching a conducting state of each of the elements in the power converter in accordance with a driving condition for defining an output torque and a rotating speed of the motor to operate the elements in a state that the motor is connected to the power converter so as to obtain an active region of an element to be inspected based on a phase current flowing in the element to be inspected and a voltage between terminals of the element to be inspected for one electrical angle cycle during the operation, a driving condition setting step of setting a driving condition for inspection corresponding to the active region of the element to be inspected which is obtained at the active region calculating step, an inspecting step of switching a conducting state of the element to be inspected in accordance with the driving condition for inspection which is set at the driving condition setting step in a state that an inspecting load is connected to the power converter, and an output value calculating step of obtaining a correlation of an ON time and a phase current value based on the phase current flowing in the element to be inspected and a voltage between the terminals of the element to be inspected at the inspecting step.