The Challenge:

The qualitative approach of validating machine is often unreliable, also the safety of the operator’s health could be at risk for long term shift.

The Solution:

Designing a test system with TestStand that handles the data storage mechanism while also great for further research of validating the machine automatically.

In the world of manufacturing, time is essential when it comes to bringing the product to the market. Automotive manufacturing is no exception, the seemingly fast-paced innovation and the need to improve the test’s efficiency are equally important. 

At the time, our customer relies on the manual testing with qualitative check of the test operator. This could bring inconsistency for the result and even present health risk in the long term. The customer has decided to automate the validation process while preserve the data for further diagnostic. 

Haliatech, as the official partner of National Instruments in Indonesia, is humbled to bring the solution to this challenge. Generally, we may breakdown the solution into three parts, namely:

1. The modular and industrial standard hardware solution of Compact Data Acquisition (DAQ) of NI cDAQ
2. LabVIEW as the foundation and the programming language of choice due to its versatility with various platform especially the NI platform
3. TestStand acts as the test executive, with its streamlined approach to simplify tests from various programming language including LabVIEW

To eliminate the manual work of machine part testing, we have designed our Data Acquisition system with Sound and Vibration Solution using Accelerometer. Using the modular NI 9234 Data Acquisition Module for Sound and Vibration measurement, the accelerometers are connected and reside aside the NI Compact DAQ (shortened to cDAQ) chassis. NI 9234 is great for frequency analysis.

cDAQ itself is well known for its ruggedness that complies with various industrial compliances. By harnessing the customizability of LabVIEW and its industrial standard of its DAQ, our customer could cut the time and cost needed for a single Unit Under Test (UUT). 

Another benefit that our customers could reap is how they can store all the data acquired into a compact yet comprehensive database, a major leap compared to the traditional manual work approach. 

TestStand, on the other hand, offers the value of a straightforward solution to test management. By adopting the test executive technology (such as TestStand), one could improve the test throughput and shorten the time to market and help to ensure the quality of the product. 

Developing the TestStand in tandem with LabVIEW, we managed to design the setup that would enable the operator to focus on the test fixture without needing to physically in touch with the PC side of the setup. 

This combination offers the unprecedented value of test automation while also brings the advantage of improving the safety measure to the operator. By this measure, we managed to preserve the test data that can help for future diagnostic, cut the time of testing by automating the test application and improve the confidence in expandability due to the modularity nature of the system. 

Haliatech is proud to be in this collaboration. Should you have any inquiries in regards to this application or NI solution in general, feel free to reach us at sales@haliatech.com. 

Reference:

• NI Data Acquisition
• NI TestStand Introduction

Author Information:

Muhammad Farid Retistianto, ST

Haliatech, Alliance Partner of National Instruments

Bekasi – Indonesia

(+6221) 85508561

farid.retistianto@haliatech.com