TBG, Author at TBG Solutions

Rupture Disc Case Study

Key Fact

Full in-house development of all hardware and software components from CAD to final products.

Testimonials

“The system has already seen production benefits by reducing pressure rupture tolerances from ±14% to <±1% putting the customer at the forefront of rupture disk production.”

Understand

Rupture disks are a critical safety component to any modern pressure based system to allow for the safe expulsion of pressure during an overpressure situation. Rupture disks are used in a wide range of industries such as automotive, pharmaceutical and aerospace. In overpressure situations, it is integral that the disks rupture within low tolerances of their defined overpressure limit to avoid potential disaster and damage to the system.

The production of rupture disks has historically been a manual, analogue based process using a large 5 tonne steel press, multiple gauges and indicators all controlled by a single operator. Complexity of the production process results in high tolerances of the burst pressure of the disk itself which push the limits of design specifications.

The overall issue of high pressure limit tolerances and the expensive, time consuming nature of the production process led to the customer selecting TBG Solutions to re-engineer and automate the production process due to our vast experience in providing bespoke automated production test and measurement solutions.

Engineer

The system is responsible for control and automation of 5 key areas of the production process:

Hydraulic Press Control – Providing necessary clamp forces to hold the sheet material in place.

Tooling – Decision making on specific tools to use during the forming process as well as being able to control the disc geometry during forming.

Hardware control – Control all electromechanical hardware in the system such as valves and pressure transducers.

Disk forming – Control and configuration of all settings and hardware to produce a rupture disk.

Logging of data – Press profiles and all user data including login information, press diagnostics and pressure data are all stored in CSV & database files.

Overall, the system is controlled by a LabVIEW application running on a host PC which communicates via Ethernet with a cRIO-9014 real-time controller and 9104 FPGA based chassis. Communication between the new system & existing hardware such as pressure transducers and pumps is done so via a combination of FPGA based digital signals on the cRIO as well as custom Windows DLL functions to communicate with external software including configuration software for a PID pressure controller.

As well as having the design challenge of software development, careful consideration of the overall enclosure of the system was required by TBG Solutions Glasgow due to the nature of the application operating in a high pressure, wet environment and its inherent risks to the operator from a 5 tonne steel press.

A fully operational enclosure for the press and all associated hardware was produced in-house, this allowed for a high level of customisability of the final build as well as ease of integration of NI and 3rd party hardware in the same IP rated enclosure.

Deliver

Overall, the combination of reconfigurable Real-Time and FPGA based hardware coupled with the ease of development and UI customisability in the LabVIEW IDE provided TBG Solutions with the means to understand, engineer and deliver a turnkey solution to the customer, fitting the initial brief and specification and exceeding customer expectations.

Using LabVIEW & cRIO, we were able to integrate with existing hardware to produce an easy to use modern production process that has already seen production benefits by reducing pressure rupture tolerances from ±14% to <±1% putting the customer at the forefront of rupture disk production.

Creating an automated HASS test solution for three avionics PCBs.

HASS testing (Highly Accelerated Stress Screen) is an accelerated reliability screen that can reveal latent flaws accessing product reliability.

Key Fact

The system led to 12x increase in test throughput, benefiting the manufacturer and ultimately the consumer with a significant cost reduction.

Testimonials

“The test system ensured that all of our PCBS are properly tested prior to use and has significantly decreased our test time.”

Understand

Manufacturing flaws and reliability problems can cause mission changing or even catastrophic and fatal consequences as well as significant financial penalties in the avionics defence industry. To help mitigate this, original equipment manufacturers are required to perform HASS testing to ensure ongoing product quality and reliability by exposing latent defects in components and assemblies. HASS testing is a form of stress test for a product designed to improve reliability by characterising failures and using this information to improve on the design or manufacturing process. Temperature and vibration cycling are commonly performed during the HASS testing process.

The requirement to test three avionics RIO (Remote Input/Output) PCBs in parallel led to the employment of TBG Solutions. TBG Solutions is a National Instruments Gold Alliance Partner that specialises in providing bespoke automated production test and measurement solutions, system maintenance, customer training and support for a diverse customer base.

Engineer

The Test System

The test system performs 50,000 electrical tests including voltage, resistance, current, capacitance, frequency, phase and trip on three parallel units residing in a HASS chamber. The test system allows HASS profiles to be generated and executed, giving the operator the ability to exclude or include specific tests, adjust temperature/vibration levels and ramp rates. The fully automated parallel testing involves aircraft simulation, 2-part firmware download, highly accurate capacitance measurements and load trip testing.

The test system utilised a National Instruments PXI-8106 controller and PXI-1045 18 slot chassis with three PXI-4065 DMMs, a PXI-5105 Scope, Multifunction DAQ cards and various switch cards to allow extremely accurate, flexible and easy measurements. LabVIEW was used to create an interface driver for each instrument within the system and TestStand was then used to seamlessly sequence these drivers and other components together to create flexible test sections that could then be sequenced on the fly. TestStand has built-in parallelisation options and these were taken advantage of to test the three units as a batch, starting and ending the testing together.

The complete system was designed and built by TBG Solutions and TBG Manufacturing using CAD/CAM and National Instruments LabVIEW/TestStand

Figure 1 shows a CAD image of the test system with the National Instruments PXI hidden behind a panel accessible from the rear of the 2-bay 19” rack.

Benefits of the Test System

The test system not only tests three units in parallel but brings the individual test time for a single unit down from 3 hours using an existing system to 45 minutes. This provides a 12x increase in test throughput, benefiting the manufacturer and ultimately the consumer with a significant cost reduction.

Software tools provided with the system allow the user to change test sequencing/looping and HASS parameters such as vibration level, temperature level and respective ramp rates. This allows the customer to create a very specific test profile to try and replicate a real-world fault on a particular component. This moves the system away from a rigid test system and allows the customer to perform diagnostics, debug testing and R&D.

• Automated parallel test of multiple units

• 150 000 Individual tests

• Plane simulation

• Environmental chamber control with condition profiling

LabVIEW and TestStand provided such a comprehensive suite of easy to use functionality that the developers and designers were able to really focus on the best way to perform the tests on the unit rather than building the test executive. The team leveraged the functionality of LabVIEW and TestStand and other National Instruments products to provide a flexible, maintainable system, fit for purpose at the present and long into the future. Utilising these technologies allowed development of highly cohesive and loosely coupled tests increasing flexibility of test and reusability of software modules.

The final system successfully performs over 50,000 tests per unit under test in parallel whilst controlling the HASS chamber.

Deliver

The final system successfully performs over 50,000 tests per unit under test in parallel whilst controlling the HASS chamber.

0KU0EJ0VY — Figure 1: Computer Aided Design (CAD) Image of Test Equipment Rack

Figure 2: User Interface for Test Equipment

Automated Test System to Test Seat Belt Quality Case Study

Seat belts reduce the risk of a fatal injury by up to 50 per cent for front seat occupants and up to 75 per cent for rear seat occupants. They have to meet a variety of standards to be allowed in vehicles.

Key Fact

Tests sometimes required a duration of less than 1 second yet needed to provide simulation of deceleration at up to 1000m/s⁻².

seatbelt testing 2 — General System (Top – Seats) (Bottom – Rams)

Testimonials

“TBG Solutions delivered a scalable test system that allowed all of our product to adhere to international standards”

Understand

The customer approached TBG with the requirement to control a number of air driven rams to apply defined loads to varying configurations of bus seats whilst monitoring the load applied to the seatbelts for both lap and shoulder restraint.

Engineer

Project Overview

Our customer, a global bus manufacturer, approached TBG with the requirement to control a number of air driven rams to apply defined loads to varying configurations of bus seats whilst monitoring the load applied to the seatbelts for both lap and shoulder restraint.

Due to the varying range of seatbelt configurations, it is important for the customer to be able to select a varying number of air driven rams, load cells and string pots for control and measurement. For this TBG solutions provide a simple to use user-friendly UI. The customer is also tied to several standards which vary internationally, so it is critical that the readings are not only accurate but repeatable with tests sometimes requiring a duration of less than 1 second yet providing simulation of deceleration at up to 1000m/s⁻².

System Design

TBG were assigned the task of interfacing several air driven rams into a hardware/software combination of TBGs choice ultimately allowing the users to have granular PID control of the testing as well as means to log and report suitable data. We chose a National Instruments LabVIEW/cRIO combination for the job. This was because is capable of running modular and reconfigurable FPGA code as well as the real time operating system meaning we could develop and run a truly real time PID algorithm.

The ability to connect an expansion chassis was also a major benefit, limited channel count meant that the string potentiometer connections had to be implemented in an ethernet expansion chassis, of which the integration into the code was seamless and easy to configure.

The ease of integration between FPGA and Real-Time meant that time and money could be saved and used elsewhere to build up the PID algorithm and reporting interface of which it was critical to be intuitive and simple.

The system can be seen to have four discrete parts:

FPGA – Dedicated to control and acquisition on the RIO, FPGA chosen to allow for future higher data rates scan interface can’t keep up with
Real Time – All Processing and File write functions happen here, there is also a debug interface accessible from any PC with the LabVIEW IDE
File I/O – TDMS files are generated to log all raw data
Reporting – The test results need to be reported, for this the report generation toolkit was used, mainly for its use of Microsoft word templates and bookmarks which meant the data from LabVIEW could easily be transposed into a professional report.

The system is ultimately controlled by a LabVIEW Real Time Executable which commands not only the FPGA acquisition via interrupts but is also responsible for all data passed up the chain to the PC. The system itself is within a simple enclosure with dedicated PSU for the CRIO and load cell excitation, of which the load cells can be excited in any combination required based upon the testing requirements. An image of the test system can be seen below.

Deliver

The final system offered a high degree of flexibility being built on top of the National Instruments LabVIEW™ platform, with the set up being designed to use a generic code system. This made the system easily expandable with plug and play simplicity and allowed for minimal changes to be made to the system’s architecture once sensors had been fitted to the nacelles.

Real-time data is channelled and gathered in a central server which forwards the data to the operator. Being controlled by independent GPS timing systems meant that data could be gathered and seen in sync in real time, ready for analysis and logging.

The facility is now ready to test the manufacturer’s latest designs in real time with an unparalleled level of accuracy and simplicity.

test interface — Test Interface (Using Simulated Data)

Bedside Equipment Alarm Management System Case Study

Our revolutionary BEAMS system provides healthcare facilities with the ability to improve response times and provide consistent high levels of patient care. The system detects Bedside alarms and alerts the relevant persons.

Key Fact

Our revolutionary BEAMS system provides healthcare facilities with the ability to improve response times and provide consistent high levels of patient care.

Testimonials

“BEAMS can ensure all patients get the care they need in potentially life threatening situations.”

Understand

Patients are commonly connected to many different monitors that can measure cardiac rhythm, blood pressure, respiratory rate and many more vital signs. If a monitor sounds an alarm a nurse needs to attend to the patient immediately. Worldwide economic recession has put intense pressure on healthcare budgets at a time when wards are getting bigger, contain more single-bed bays, and patients are becoming more audibly and visibly isolated from nursing staff. The United States’ Joint Commission attributed 22% of deaths and injuries involving ventilator monitors to the alarms being inaudible so it’s imperative something changes. However, tight budgets, combined with a worldwide shortage of nurses, means the economic reality is that nurse numbers cannot be increased to manage these isolated patients in the traditional manner and the monitors can’t be replaced to make them more noticeable.

In the UK’s National Health Service, staff account for 40% of the total NHS budget so there is a need for innovation to maintain or improve patient care without increasing staffing levels. Ensuring alarms for existing monitors and pumps are acted on early so that nursing staff can intervene quickly is an area of concern.

Engineer

The BEAMS device is a wall-mounted device which detects and identifies specific medical alarms and ignores ambient sounds. Upon detecting a medical equipment alarm BEAMS then alerts hospital staff via the existing nurse call system.

The BEAMS device can detect and identify specific medical alarms above the surrounding cacophony, alert nurses immediately and help hospitals to improve patient care without increasing staffing levels; an example of reducing costs but improving patient safety through innovation. BEAMS can ensure all patients get the care they need in potentially life threatening situations.

Deliver

The final BEAMS product is currently on trial in Sheffield Children’s Hospital and will be rolled out across all wards over the coming months. A second trial is planned with Sheffield Teaching Hospitals which, if successful, would see the device adopted across Sheffield’s hospitals. Furthermore, the NHS is advising that patient rooms in newly built hospitals should be 50-100% single occupancy. With approximately 200,000 hospital beds in England, there is a huge market for the BEAMS product.

Apply for a free trial of BEAMS at your healthcare institution by visiting the Tutum Medical website.

GE Energy Case Study

GE Energy provides a broad array of power generation, energy delivery, and water process technologies to solve global challenges. The Power & Water division works in several areas of the energy industry, including wind and solar, biogas, and alternative fuels.

Key Fact

The system of sensors needed to be highly adaptable and configurable in order that multiple systems could be tested

Testimonials

“TBG Solutions delivered a reconfigurable, expandable and synchronised data logging network for full scale tidal turbine power train testing.”

Understand

GE Energy is an industry leader in the R&D of renewable energy. The brief was to provide a data acquisition system to connect multiple sensors to a central server in order to monitor and control the test parameters of its marine turbines research facility.

Engineer

Marine turbine nacelles would be placed into the system and seafloor current environments would be simulated in order to test both the efficiency and performance of the generators.

The system of sensors needed to be highly adaptable and configurable in order that multiple systems could be tested.

Due to the nature of the project there would be a lot of electrical noise, limiting the distance that data could be transmitted. This posed a problem since operations needed to be logged at high accuracy and in real time.

Deliver

The facility is now ready to test manufacturer’s latest designs in real time with an unparalleled level of accuracy and simplicity.

Arvin Meritor Case Study

A leading global supplier of drivetrain, mobility, braking and aftermarket solutions for commercial vehicle and industrial markets, Arvin Meritor serves commercial truck, trailer, defence, specialty and aftermarket customers around the world.

Key Fact

The system was custom built on top of the National Instruments LabVIEW™ environment in order that it could be highly customisable

Testimonials

“The system was so efficient that multiple duplicate systems were ordered to further increase efficiency.”

Understand

Arvin Meritor is a global company that builds heavy trucks for the transport and logistics industry, working within a market that has a huge demand for highly efficient and safe heavy parts.

The brief was to create an expandable, universal test system for pneumatic braking systems used in heavy goods vehicles. The test system had to work on multiple product variants to allow for full verification at high precision, as well as harnessing the ability to control the breaking system at a specific ramp rate to the point where a specific torque could be created.

Engineer

The system would be dealing with multiple heavy parts and so safety was of utmost importance.

The test system was delivered on a modular test bed format where the elements to be tested could be installed, tested and adjusted. The test bed needed to work autonomously once installation was complete and run for many hours at a time for extended periods.

The system was custom built on top of the National Instruments LabVIEW™ environment in order that it could be highly customisable and expandable.

Deliver

The system met all requirements; in many areas it exceeded them. It was so efficient that multiple units have now been ordered by a variety of companies across the globe and it has been accepted as the standard by multiple brake manufacturers due to its reliability and expandability.

Tridonic Case Study

Tridonic is a global business working to control, regulate and operate lighting systems in accordance with its customers’ needs. With over 50 years’ experience and a 2,000-strong team of experts, Tridonic is a global leader in the lighting industry.

Key Fact

The unit is fully equipped to test a full range of products without the need for adjustments

Testimonials

“TBG Solutions’ delivered system integrates seamlessly with a whole variety of hardware.”

Understand

Tridonic is a leading manufacturer of lighting components, developing innovative solutions that are used worldwide in the lighting industry. The company is highly focused on customer satisfaction and quality.

The brief was to engineer a bespoke and specialised test system that could efficiently test and quality check a range of different lighting products before being sent to customers to ensure they were fully functional and of the highest quality.

Engineer

The system needed to be highly adaptable so that it could be used to test a full range of LED products and test each unit using multiple AC/DC power supplies. The system needed to be capable of testing light levels, voltage/current tolerances and perform flash testing, all whilst keeping test time to a minimum and efficiency high.

The engineering challenge was to develop a generic system that was able to test a full range of products. This was overcome by the use of multiple product carriers along with an object-oriented architecture allowing for future expandability and maintenance of the bespoke system.

The solution was designed so that the product to be tested is placed in a drawer where specially designed, air driven probe blocks (two at the back and one underneath) are positioned to make the required physical connections, successfully testing and quality checking each product before shipping.

Deliver

The testing unit was successfully delivered and stands at over six feet tall. The unit is fully equipped to test a full range of products without the need for adjustments by simply placing the product into the testing platform drawer. The system tests each product at a high degree of accuracy at peak efficiency; it also has the benefit of being fully scalable for future projects.

Nuvia Case Study

The system consisted of almost 40 strain bridge circuits deployed across the system. TBG Solutions produced a distributed system which allowed the operators of a nuclear waste fuel processing prototype

Key Fact

The system consisted of almost 40 strain bridge circuits deployed across the system

Testimonials

“TBG Solutions produced a distributed system which allowed the operators of a nuclear waste fuel processing prototype to monitor and record impacts during trials.”

Understand

Nuvia is an international nuclear engineering, project management and services contractor. The brief was to engineer a monitoring system that would record and model impact data on a fuel processing prototype.

Engineer

The system consisted of almost 40 strain bridge circuits deployed across the system and routed back to 3 field boxes to relay information back to the operator.

Due to the nature of the project, signals were prone to fluctuations and in order to protect the operator and provide the most accurate readings, these signals needed to be signal conditioned before being relayed to the central PC.

Deliver

The system was successful in retrieving diagnostic information on the fuel processing prototype, with the array of sensors serving to provide a detailed analysis of part strain. These results were then analysed by the system to provide 3D readouts of the parts to show where strain was being exerted after being compared to a threshold level.

University Of Southampton Case Study

Renowned for its award-winning research projects in science, technology and engineering, The University Of Southampton is a world-famous research facility.

Key Fact

Adaptive algorithms enabled the system to be robust and capable of reducing multiple and varying noise frequencies.

Testimonials

“Implemented on embedded system technology providing a state of the art, highly reliable, compact and adaptable system.”

Understand

The TranQuil project is a collaboration with Princess Yachts, The University of Southampton and TBG Solutions. Princess Yachts, designers and manufacturers of motor yachts, are regarded as the finest exponent of contemporary yacht design. The project was aimed at the luxury yacht market. Yachts often use a secondary generator to provide power whilst the yacht is stationary, however, this generates considerable noise and vibration, which can upset passengers during silent hours.

The challenge was to develop a scalable and frequency adaptable solution that nullified generator noise and reduced vibration thus providing maximum comfort to passengers.

Engineer

The proposed system was a set of actuators that sit beneath the generator moving in anti-phase and amplitude to the generator, thus eradicating noise and vibration. This presented additional challenges as the system needed to be reactive to multiple points of contact and react in real time (microseconds) to vibrations in order to be effective.

Adaptive algorithms enabled the system to be robust and capable of reducing multiple and varying noise frequencies.

Deliver

TBG Solutions achieved active noise cancellation by implementing a Least Mean Square (LMS) algorithm.

The system successfully reduces cabin nose by 10dB providing passengers with a highly reliable, compact and state of the art system to ensure maximum comfort. This system can be built-in to new boats, retrofitted to existing boats and applied in other industries where noise and vibration cancellation is required, such as in coaches and buildings.

Alstom Case Study

Close to 25% of the world’s power production capacity depends on Alstom technology and services. Its clean technologies generate electricity equivalent to the needs of around 1.2 billion homes.

Key Fact

Due to the extreme dangers inherent with testing equipment at such high power, operator safety was of utmost importance

Testimonials

“A viable high throughput, safe and reliable test system for a very demanding and high-tech requirement.”

Understand

The Challenge

To provide a bespoke automated production test facility for Voltage Source Converters (VSC) and safely exercising the devices up to their operating limits of 2.5kV and 2000A. A Voltage Source Converter is a device which can be used to convert a direct current voltage into alternating current voltage.

The Solution

Developing a LabVIEW/TestStand PXI based system providing full automated production test of UUTs, whilst maintaining strict safety practices and procedures safeguarding both product and operators.

Introduction

As a National Instruments UK Gold Alliance member, specialising in using NI products to provide control, test and automation, TBG Solutions were invited by a high profile power generation and transmission company to provide a solution for their test requirement for their VSC sub-modules. The testing required the system to charge the products in pairs to in excess of 2kV, and then exercise their ability to generate AC when grouped, at over 2.5kV and 1800A peak whilst maintaining control and safety through monitoring of the product and the environmental conditions.

Engineer

Cell Design

Due to the extreme dangers inherent in the testing of these devices, the safety features of the test cell were foremost in the design. The safety features were based around operator exclusion from the cell during operation with hardware interlocks on doors which cut cell supply voltages, automatic VSC discharge paths on cell entry to protect against errant charge and stringent operating procedures for cell entry and loading. This can be seen in Figure 1.

The test cell can be broken down into six major parts;

1. Operators console- This housed the control PC and interface and primary interlock key control.

2. Test Cell- This is the walled exclusion zone that prevented contact with hazards through the use of 8 foot walls, flash proof filtered windows and an interlocked door.

3. 48U 19” power rack- This contained 2 MPE TS Series 4 3KV DC power supplies.

4. 48U 19” control rack- This housed the PXI chassis with associated signal conditioning and switching and communications interfaces for control and measurement.

This included;

a. PXI-1044 14 slot chassis.

b. PXI-PCI 8336 MXI-4 link.

c. PXI-8231 Gigabit Ethernet Interface.

d. PXI-8432/2 RS232 Interface.

e. PXI-4071 6.5 Digit DMM

f. PXI-5105 60MS/s 12 Bit 8 Channel Digitiser/Oscilloscope 128mb

g. PXI-6514 Industrial IO Card

h. PXI-2571 66 Channel, 1A SPDT Relay Module

i. PXI-6224 M-Series Multifunction DAQ Card.

5. UUT interface- This was a freestanding structure which housed the pneumatics, cooling interface, bus bars and high voltage switching. The UUTs also plugged into this.

6. Cooling plant– This had a temperature controlled closed loop water cooling system that used deionised water.

The Test cell can be seen in figure 2

Production Test System — Figure 1-Test Cell Enclosure

The system has two test bays; one for each UUT. The UUTs are brought into the system on trolleys as seen in Figure 3.

The UUTs are connected to the test cell via hydraulics once all operators vacate the test area and the doors are closed. Once the UUT Interface is connected, the tests can begin.

National Instruments Components-Hardware

One of the key safety concerns was a conductive path between the operator and the UUT. Thanks to NI this was easily overcome by using their fibre optic Ethernet link between the PXI chassis and the PC. This gave the added benefit that the PXI chassis did not require a controller, making the integrated cards appear as part of the PCI backplane. Another key feature of the NI hardware that accelerated development were the soft front panels, which shipped with the hardware and allowed direct control over instruments out of the box. This allowed commissioning of the very complex hardware independent of TestStand, giving us confidence in the test cell before we ran the automated test sequences.

National Instruments Components – Software

The software architecture was made up of several interfaces and engines which worked interactively to create a simple unified interface. This allowed an operator to automatically control a large and complex system. This particular system included complex control, data acquisition, cooling, critical safety monitoring and complex test and was also able to provide detailed debug and manual control capabilities. This can be seen in Figure 4.

The primary interface is a modified version of the shipped TestStand Operator Interface as seen in Figure 5 .

The interface is used by the Operators to run the test sequences and gives them live feedback on the status and progress of the UUTs. Another key modification to the interface was the ability to terminate a sequence in accordance with the safe practices required, when dealing with a high power system.

The second interface is the UUT Communications and Control interface.

The VSC constantly streams a status message over RS232. This is then processed by the interface into a usable format and made available to the TestStand sequences using a shared variable library. Commands are also sent to the VSM via this interface. During testing this runs in the background and requires no user interaction, but was very useful during commissioning and debug.

The third and final interface as seen by the operator is the Data Acquisition and Control Interface.

The Data Acquisition and Control Interface acts as an engine for the continuous data acquisition from the AI and DIO that required constant monitoring. It also included the software that controlled and monitored the cooling plant.

Figure 4. Software diagram to demonstrate the architecture of the software components and how they interacted within the system

Deliver

Conclusion

TBG Solutions provided a high throughput, safe and reliable test system for a very demanding and high-tech requirement. The soft front panel tools, hardware abstraction layer and easy integration of a variety of instruments allowed rapid development and verification.