Automotive Archives - 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.

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.

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.

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.

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)

Testing Electronic Power Assisted Steering Systems (EPAS) Case Study

The Multi-Axis Motion Test Facility that we developed allows the customer to rapidly prototype, test and perform custom measurements on any of their EPAS product range.

Key Fact

The system was developed using an object-orientated approach in order to maximise the scalability of the test rig

Testimonials

“The new system gives us a huge degree of freedom and significantly reduces the time it takes us to build new test procedures.”

Understand

Our customer is a global supplier of automotive systems, modules, and components to automotive original equipment manufacturers and related aftermarkets. We have provided them with a flexible multi-axis motion test facility capable of controlling up to four individual drives to be utilised in tests performed on Electronic Power Assisted Steering (EPAS) racks, used in a large variety of automobiles. The system provides the capability to determine the quality of their products through measurements such as friction and hysteresis.

Engineer

Design Challenges

The main design challenge in this system was to provide a flexible interface and control architecture that allows our customer to research and design a large variety of tests that can be undertaken using any number of motion axis. Being capable of writing detailed and complex testing scripts through an intuitive user interface allows the customer to rapidly prototype, test and perform custom measurements on any of their EPAS product range.

The next main challenge was to ensure that the software contained safeguards to protect the product samples under test from over application of load or torque. As a result, alarm limits for selected sensors are saved within the motion profiles, so that custom load and position limits can be applied depending on which test is being performed. This eliminates any risk of damage to hardware when developing new tests.

System Design

The system was developed using an object-orientated approach in order to maximise the scalability of the test rig. The system is capable of independently running up to four motion profiles on two rotary and two linear actuators. Typically the software is used to control the application of load or apply a deflection to a test sample for the purpose of calculating stress and performance measurements. In addition to the four motion axis, there is a brake controlled from a calibrated voltage output. This allows the test designers to apply a load/torque onto one end of a steering rack and apply an independent braking torque at the opposite end of the test piece, effectively controlling the torsion. In addition to the control aspects, there is a sophisticated data acquisition routine that acquires data to a log file at high speed for offline analysis in addition to displaying the test results on a live trend screen.

Deliver

Our customer now has the capability to design and run a variety of tests in which there is an unprecedented degree of freedom. As a result of the reduced time taken to develop and build new test procedures, the rig is now under large demand to perform production tests in addition to purely being used as a platform for researching and developing new tests.

full system — The Multi-Axis Motion Test Facility

Automated Test System for Functional and In-Circuit Testing Case Study

The automated test system we developed for functional test and in-circuit testing allows testing for multiple product ranges and is easily scalable for future expansion requirements.

Key Fact

New products can be supported by designing additional interchangeable test adaptors (ITA) which can be easily fitted to the system

Testimonials

“TBG Solutions delivered a functional test system that is effective and easily expandable.”

Understand

TBG Solutions have produced a PXI based generic automated test system performing both functional test and in-circuit testing on multiple products ranges.

The system leverages the MacPanel scout interface to provide a reconfigurable base platform from which the system can easily and quickly adapted in order to test a wide range of products. The system comprises enough hardware to support most test functions and can be expanded to support additional hardware where required.

The software architecture is modular and comprises elements common to all product test applications such as user management, calibration and diagnostics. The software is expanded to facilitate product specific testing by implementing custom TestStand sequences. New products can be supported by designing additional interchangeable test adaptors (ITA) which can be easily fitted to the system. New software sequences can be written specifically for each ITA expanding the functionality of the system.

Engineer

Design Challenges

The challenge was to design a versatile PXI based system incorporating a mixed suite of measurement hardware that can be re-configured and re-used for testing multiple product types using a commaon base platform. A product specific Interchangeable test adaptor is attached to the base system to provide the signal routing and configuration applicable to the tests required for that specific product.

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.

System Design

National Instruments PXI measurement hardware provides the basis for the Generic Manufacturing Defect Inspection Automated Test Equipment (GMDI-ATE) which is further augmented using Excelsys Xgen™ range power supplies. The system is mounted in a standard 19” rack enclosure and incorporates a MacPanel Scout interface for configuring the system for different applications.

NI-PXI hardware modules provide a large number of analogue and digital channels working in tandem with high density switch and relay matrixes. In addition, we include a high precision DMM, arbitrary function generator, fully reconfigurable FPGA, RS232/485 serial communications, CAN and JTAG boundary scan.

Deliver

The systems delivered to date have successfully managed to reduce the cost of ownership and lead times on providing new test capabilities whilst improving test performance, accuracy, traceability and throughput. TBG can augment your test capabilities by designing and producing an ITA in under eight weeks.