Case Study Archives | Computer Controlled Solutions Ltd

Electric Park Brakes Assembly Press

by Abi Riley | Sep 4, 2020 | Automotive Case Studies, Case Study

AP Racing is a leading manufacturer of performance brake and clutch systems for road and race cars. CCS has provided them with bespoke test rigs, calibrators, and data acquisition systems since 1994.

They are producing an Electric Park Brakes (EPB) assembly jig and they required transducers, signal conditioning, and software intelligence to determine the correct assembly of the parts. The assembly jig has two integrated loadcells, one for each hand. A comparison between load profiling and position is required to determine if the seal has been overloaded or damaged during assembly, so a measurement of displacement will also be required.

Order of Events

Requirements

Software

Basic Features
- Pass/Fail Indication on screen.
- Pass/Fail and total throughput saved to file and on screen.
- No fault forward implemented so rig solenoids remain enables on fail until pass code entered.
- High resolution load and displacement monitoring during piston insertion with live graph on screen.
Suggested Additional Features
- Storage of all data to disk which IT could add to network and copy off.
- Operator use ID card to unlock solenoids on fault so a record of the ID with a time and date stamp can be retained.
- Enter part serial number alongside datafile for traceability.
- DMC reading of part number – needing additional hardware.
- High load warning

Hardware

Electrical Cabinet
- To include wall mounted cabinet, door electrical isolator, 240VAC single phase 13A supply, 24V 5A PSU, and fusing.
- Build Standards all electrical connectivity cables for control and acquisition to enter and exit through the base gland plate, electrical connectivity to UUT to be via jig mounted connections, testing to safety of machinery standards EN 60204-1.
Jig Equipment
- x2 Loadcells APR Specified RDP SLC-D05000, 22kN, strain gauges, integral cable
- x2 Displacement transducers RDP ACT1000A, +/-25mm
- x2 Solenoids suggestion of 24V RS307-3499#
Computer System to be an Intel NUC solid state PC and 10” touchscreen monitor in a wall mounted enclosure.
Instrumentation
- NI USB Analogue/Digital Interface Analogue IP x4 Diff/x8 SE, range +/-10V, resolution 16bit, maximum sample rate 5kS/s
- x2 Analogue OP SE range +/-10V, resolution 16bit, maximum sample rate 5kS/s
- x13 Digitals bi-directional IP 0-5V, OP Active 5V / Open Collector
- x2 Load conditioning RDP DR7DC, 24V supply, +/-10V output
- x2 Displacement conditioning RDP DR7AC, 24V supply, +/-10V output

Results

On delivery they will also receive a calibration certificate, an Instruction Sheet and a full set of Wiring Drawings. Computer Controlled Solutions also conform to all CE Marking Requirements for the safety of such machinery, maintain Professional Indemnity and Public Liability Insurance and unless otherwise stated, warranty all work and parts for a period of 12 months from delivery.

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Brake Test Rigs for brake cooling power units, friction testing, F1 Brake Dyno testing and other applications.
Automotive Projects including data acquisition and control systems, autosport racing caliper test rig, battery monitoring system, among many.

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Dynomometer Test Rig

by Abi Riley | Sep 4, 2020 | Automotive Case Studies, Case Study

AP Racing is a leading manufacturer of performance brake and clutch systems for road and race cars. CCS has provided them with bespoke test rigs, calibrators, software upgrades and data acquisition systems since 2011.

Development of a control and acquisition system which could be built into a dynamometer, to create a bespoke regenerative braking simulator and test rig, implementing new methods of: track simulation, dynamic inertia simulation, and regenerative braking simulation. The objective of the test data includes information as to how the brake is wearing in order to determine how it could be improved.

Current Technological Uncertainities

Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) implementation and simulation in real time

Normally testing of the brakes of an F1 vehicle would be on a Dynamometer to measure torque and rotational speed of an engine, motor or other rotating prime mover so power can be calculated.
Starting with a Dynamometer, developing a replacement control system using HIL. The uncertainty is from doing this in real-time.
The system needs to update the test rig 2,000 times every second, which would require extremely fast processors and complex software if this is possible in real-time.

Accurate simulation of real inertia

Factors to consider in the simulation:

New Formula 1 vehicles have Kinetic Energy Recovery (KERS) System and regenerative breaking which will change the effect of the braking.
In F1 cars the driver will use both the brake and the accelerator at the same time in order to keep the vehicle stable in a turn, leading to a different patter of use.

In a normal scenario a dynamometer simulation is run to a set rpm and then the brakes are slammed on, we need to go further by:

Keeping the motor running at the same time as slamming the brake on.
Speeding the motor to achieve an even harder braking effort.
Create varying degrees of inertia to simulate changes in variables, eg. size of the vehicle, gradient the vehicle is moving at.

Baseline Technological Knowledge

This is a form of vehicle testing that did not previously exist and so we sort to develop a low-level electronics and software controlled systems to achieve a solution, and a limited number of companies have started to use dynos to achieve simulations of F1 vehicles, as opposed to consumer vehicles. The F1 marketplace is extremely competitive and so the methods and technologies are kept as closely guarded secrets, so independent research and development was required.

The knowledge developed here was not readily deducible due by our competent professionals as this uses a recent development of software and is a new application for it.

Results from the Actions Taken to Overcome the Uncertainities

Considerable brainstorming, conceptualisation, and experimentation on how the test rig would work.
Development and trademarking of a new system to test all the possible permutations of use of these new technologies without having to put a driver into a car on a track.

Hardware-In-the-Loop (HIL) implementation and simulation in real time

Worked out how to get the HIL code to work with this type of machine and application.
Development the front-end user interface to allow users to not only execute tests but to also create them.
Use of new hardware and development new types of electronics which has not been used for this type of application before.

Accurate simulation of real inertia

Integration of the mathematics involved in calculating inertia into software considering a variety of variables through a modified Davis Equation.
Adoption of an iterative process of trial and error for the creation of scenario algorithms, by testing each iteration on a test bed before it can be built up and added to the software of the main system.
Creation of a system to simulate different inertias with two ways of working:
- Cyclic Testing to test, tune and retest.
- Global F1 Track Tests to collect info from live track test and then trying to simulate them.

Future

Increasing the accuracy of the simulation of wear on the brakes and further tuning of the hardware so that the motors decelerate with exactly the required speed of reaction,
Advance in the field of Electrical and Mechanical Engineering particularly relating to regenerative braking and seeking to make an appreciable improvement over existing F1 test rigs.
Extension into worldwide transport development with electrification of vehicles and their huge impact in the area of braking and regenerative energy collection.

Similar Projects

Research and Development for a variety of industries, sectors, and organisations such as the Birmingham Centre for Railway Research and Education and Cranfield University.
Brake Test Rigs for brake cooling power units, friction testing, F1 Brake Dyno testing and other applications.
Automotive Projects including data acquisition and control systems, Autosport racing calliper test rig and battery monitoring systems.

Contact

Paul Riley

Certified LabView Architect

MD and Lead Software Developer at CCS

Tel: +44 (0)1926 485532

Email: paul@ccsln.com

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Brake Hose Capability Test Rig

by Abi Riley | Jan 4, 2020 | Automotive Case Studies, Case Study

A brake hose test rig with modular style, looking at the capabilities and fatigue of pressurised brake hoses under a variety of different parameters and simulations. Aiming for a modular approach for the overall system to allow for customisability and efficiency.

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC are a British multinational automotive company, with its headquarters nearby in Whitley, Coventry. They are a leading technology company in the field, with two iconic British car brands and an international reputation. With over 15 years of experience working with JLR, CCS have been involved in countless projects, from calibration to impact testing, test rigs to measurement systems.

Requirements

Using a JLR built rig for pressure comprising of a 4.5kW Kolle Morgan motor via belt drive to ballscrew. Which provides approximately 100mm travel with the shaft pushing onto a brake cylinder, able to apply up to 350bar pressure. This also can vary conditions including displacement, gear ratio, motor power, extension speeds and pitch.
Transparent pass through for control and acquisition, handling safety, providing PT monitoring, calibration screen, manual control of all I/O.
Aim to incorporate the JLR programmed MTS to issue all test profiles and record demands for independent playback.

Design

Software

Testing Interface split into Pressure Cycle Control and Movement Cycle Control, Test Rig setup to lock/unlock guards and show system status, individual Cycle Counters to allow partial testing, Target and Completed counters, Movement Jogging and Pressure Increment control, Hose Movement and Brake Pressure plots.
Test Configuration Interface which can Create or Load Cycle Profile, Import Cycle Profile into controllers, enable controller to view profile and configure Manifold Pressure Trip Tolerance, Hose Pressure Drop Tolerance and Max Brake Displacement Change.
Rig Configuration Interface with a live status of Digital Inputs and Outputs to assist fault diagnosis, Analogue Inputs/Outputs Configuration and Data Logging Configuration.

Hardware

CCS bespoke mobile cabinet with an integrated monitor mount, separation of 240VAC circuits and ELV DC circuits, isolator, 32A Single Phase power supply, USB connectivity, Harting connectors for connection to test rig, PMA mechanical protection of cables, interlocked connectors, keyboard and mouse.

Safety

Prevention of motor and actuator movement if the guard is open and not in setup mode.
Setup mode to provide low pressure (70psi) brake fluid pressure to enable operator to bleed hoses and system.
Status indication beacon, E-Stop, Reset and No Access when pressurised, as standard and user-friendly safety features.

Results

The finished product for the initial stage was delivered to the site in January 2020, with supporting Software Instruction Manual and User presentation (including Rig Design and Wiring, Safety Overview, Software Overview, and Test Walk-Through).

Future

Customer Feedback collected after 3 weeks from sign off.
Software updates and reviews available to JLR for the future of the rig.
The Next Phase looking into incorporating the JLR programmed MTS.

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Brake Test Rigs for brake cooling power units, friction testing, F1 Brake Dyno testing and other applications.
Automotive Projects including data acquisition and control systems, autosport racing caliper test rig, battery monitoring system, among many

Contact

Ian Billingsley

Certified LabView Architect at CCS

Lead Software Developer on this Project

Tel: +44 (0)1926 485532

Email: ian@ccsln.com

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Seat Test Rig Upgrade

by Abi Riley | Nov 9, 2019 | Automotive Case Studies, Case Study

Jaguar Land Rover Automotive PLC are a British multinational automotive company, with its headquarters nearby in Whitley, Coventry. They are a leading technology company in the field, with two iconic British car brands and an international reputation. With over 15 years of experience working with JLR, CCS have been involved in countless projects, from calibration to impact testing, test rigs to measurement systems.

Initial Tasks and Responsibility of CCS

Rewire the AC Height Motor Control Box for the E-Step integration.
Produce a new two-hand operation control pendant.
Remove old Servo Electronics and LVDT conditioning modules, JB3, JB4 & JB5.
Insert new DR7DC Load Cell conditioning boxes in place with “Home” position switches for actuators.

Cabinet Control Hardware

Cabinet and Power
- Cabinet Supply 240V 13A.
- Computer and Monitor Supply 2x 13A wall sockets.
- Rittal Cabinet 500, 800x1200x400 including plinth, front access door only.
Monitor and Control PC
- NUK Control PC running Windows 10.
- Ethernet connection to control hardware.
- 24” Widescreen Monitor with HDMI for enhanced test and results viewing, VESA mounted to minimise desk footprint.
Re-use existing AC Height Motor Control Cabinet
- Rewire to meet safety and control requirements.
- Remove AC Motor Run Lines source voltage via safety contacts in the event of an E-Stop condition.
- Motor operation controlled via new remote pendant with integral dual channel E-Stop push button.
Interfacing – The PC will be connected to the electronics control and acquisition hardware via a private Ethernet port. A second port could prove beneficial for IT access to the machine via intranet.

Software

Software Standard – All software is written in LabVIEW, a National Instruments product, by Software Engineers with Architect Certification.
Operation of Drives – all drives:
- Are configured and parameters saved in a file
- Have consecutive IP’s
- Have analogue input
- Have a limit of 600rpm, a positive limit on DIN 5 and a negative limit on DIN 6
- Have set parameters such as input demand gain set to 50rpm per volt, simulation enclosure set to 100 pulses per revolution, a 10mm pitch with resolver outputting 65536 pulses per rotation
- Are located between given limits

PC Homing required if the system is turned off when actuators are not home.
Closed Loop Control for extending up to a position or load and retracting while monitoring for a low current in case something is trapped.
Limit Switch Settings 3 short and 3 long actuators, with set locations, that are NC and stop the motor with a warning when driven to the limit and set to be homed at 60rpm to the minimum limit.
Home Safety Switch 3 short and 3 long actuators, located above the minimum switch, designed to park in position and instigate an AZ on the encoder displacement value. Upon a request for access they will check they are all in the home position, enable safe torque off, check off and allow access.

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Test Rig Upgrades for a variety of rigs including a load cell tester, hydraulic test rigs and pressure rigs.
Automotive Projects including data acquisition and control systems, Autosport racing calliper test rig, battery monitoring system, among many.

Contact

Ian Billingsley

Certified LabView Architect at CCS

Lead Software Developer on this Project

Tel: +44 (0)1926 485532

Email: ian@ccsln.com

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RVDT Portable Test Instrument

by Abi Riley | Oct 10, 2019 | Aerospace Case Studies, Case Study, Uncategorized

Collins Aerospace is anew unit of Raytheon Technologies Corporation, formed by the merger of UTC Aerospace Systems and Rockwell Collins in 2018. Collins Aerospace is one of the world’s largest suppliers of aerospace and defence products and have over 300 sites globally. CCS have been involved in multiple projects with their nearby UK Enterprise and Actuation Systems sites, and now internationally, with their Singapore section via Cranfield University.

A Rotary Variable Differential Transformer (RVDT) Test box for PAT and fault-finding purposes.

Hardware Design

Controller and chassis: cRIO 9040 RT Controller and FPGA backplane.
Display: 5 in. touch screen Win CE LCD monitor with 680*400 screen resolution.
Analogue Input: 4 analogue inputs 16bit, independent ADC, Voltage Range Accuracy ±10V, and simultaneous sampling.
Analogue Output: 4 analogue output 16bit, Voltage Range Accuracy ±10V, Output amplifier with low pass filter Signal is 3012Hz (332ms), and frequency precision can be up to 0.003%

Field programmable gate array (FPGA)

FPGAs are semiconductor devices that are based around an array of configurable logic blocks and a hierarchy of reconfigurable interconnects. The logic blocks can be configured to perform as simple logic gates or to perform complex combinational functions. The first commercially viable FPGA was invented in 1985 and since then there has been a huge increase in market competition and applications, with significant improvements in prices and performance dynamics as of 2017 broadening the range of viable applications. Some notable applications have been for hardware acceleration of the Bing search algorithm, acceleration of artificial neural networks for machine learning, and even as full systems on chips (SoC).

CCS use an add-on for NI’s LabVIEW called LabVIEW FPGA to design complex systems efficiently and effectively, this includes an integrated development environment, various IP libraries and debugging features. Here we are using the FPGA to quickly calculate the required variables without the need to upload the test data before calculating so there it is instantaneously shown on the test rig.

Software Design

- Initial Start-Up & Graph Screen is the first screen on start-up, once the system has booted up it will begin plotting RVDT and Encoder positions onto the graph.
- DPMS Screen displays the positions of the RVDTs in volts, the encoder position in revolutions, and the coil Vrms (root squared mean of voltage) from secondary coil measurements. Here you can also zero the position of the encoder with the “Reset Encoder” button.
- Settings Screen enables the operator to modify the system parameters:
  - Volts the excitation voltage supplied to the RVDT (in Vrms)
  - Oscillatory Frequency the oscillation frequency supplied to the RVDT (in Hz)
  - Pulses per Revolutions the number of pulses per revolution of the encoder
With options to “Save”, “Revert”, and “Demo”. To save new parameters, revert to the default values, and input random numbers into the DPMs to prove they are responding correctly.
- About Screen displaying operating system details and contact information for CCS.

Results

The outcome is a RVDT Test Box housed in a 19” rack inclusive of the 2 and 4 metre harnesses, breakout box and encoder. This RVDT box is not strictly a one-off piece of equipment and multiples could be sold, either to multiple companies or within a company, as an adaptable PAT and fault-finding instrument.

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Aerospace Projects including other test rigs, data acquisition systems and control interfaces, for various aerospace components.
RVDT projects for other aerospace companies such as Comar and Goodrich.
More applications of FPGAs are being looked into by CCS for a variety of other projects, including other fault-detection rigs and onsite data analysis.
International Clients are an increasingly large part of CCS’s client base, with an multinational reputation and on-site visits key to our work.

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Cryogenic Cooler Test Bench

by Abi Riley | Sep 3, 2018 | Aerospace Case Studies, Case Study, Uncategorized

Honeywell Hymatic Ltd is a department of the global Fortune 100 technology company, Honeywell, and specialises in Cryogenic Cooling Solutions for Defence and Space applications.

An adapted CCS LabStand for undertaking a wide range of tests on a cryogenic cooling system, including Stroke Capability Test, Friction Checks and Performance Baseline tests. The aim is to minimise the operator skill level required by being easy to operate and calibrate, while maintaining a very high accuracy, with clear reporting and raw data output.

DESIGN

Hardware

Mobility and Operating Interfacing:
- The cabinet should be easy moveable between test areas, including to suit double doors and having all test connections on the right-hand side.
- Front and rear access to the hardware.
- Allow the operator to run the tests standing up or sitting down.
Operational:
- The cabinet should be powder coated and be powered from one standard mains socket.
- Ease of connectivity and enhanced airflow should be considered.
- The E-Stop will stop operation while leaving the PC and control hardware active.
Inputs/Outputs and Connectivity:
- BNCs for TESA mU Checker and Pressure Transducer
- CB-A2 Socket for Keyence Triangulation
- 9-way D-Type RS-232 for Mitutoyo Laser Mic
- 4 mm socket for Boing Out
- 6 mm sockets for ACT Tests 1 & 2
- K-Type Thermocouple for Temp 1 & 2
Design Control and Acquisition Hardware:
- National Instruments Hardware: cRIO Backplane, Differential Input Module, Analogue Output Module, Sinking Digital Input Module, Safe 24v Sourcing Digital Output Module, Permanent 24v Sourcing Digital Output Module.
- Pilz Safety Controller
- Extras: PULS low ripple power supplies, Harting 5 port switch and Brainboxes Ethernet to RS-232 converter.

Software

Main Interface is the gateway to the main test bench functions and contains the user login/logout, a maintenance Task Status and navigation to the other operating screens.
Test Interface is designed to guide the user through each required test by displaying a series of prompts as the test progresses. It includes information on the current test, test step and instructions relevant to the test for the operator in Area A and displays a TAR mimic or a graphical representation of the test in Area B. There is also a System Trip Status Pop-Up for when there has been a critical system event. Then two reports are generated at the completion of any test run.
- The Test Bench Summary Report containing the test unit ID info and summary of results.
- Audit Report containing a full list of every step completed during testing.
Maintainer Interface allows a user to complete maintenance tasks, conduct manual testing, and view/adjust calibration.
Administrator Interface allows a user to add, delete or modify authorised test bench accounts.

Results

The test rig was delivered alongside a Software Instruction Manual and Warranty Information. Since then CCS have updated the systems software and hardware and will continue to be contactable for any future updates or issues. There has also been a more recent second Acquisition System for Honeywell in 2020 and there will be ongoing support and software updates.

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Aerospace Projects including other test rigs, data acquisition systems (including CCS’s Daquire™) and control interfaces, for various aerospace components and companies such as Collins Aerospace, BAE Systems, and MOOG.
LabStand was originally developed for BAE Systems and now has been adapted for new applications, such as Clutch Testing.

Contact

Charlie Rodway

Certified LabView Architect

Principal Software Developer at CCS

Tel: +44 (0)1926 485532

Email: charlie@ccsln.com

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