Test Stands
The costs that go into designing and building a first
class test facility pay off when it's time to prove that your product has what
it takes to compete in today's world market. When a major manufacturer of AC and
DC motors needed complete control and supervisory capability for their motor
test stands they chose the
CMX™
Process Control System.
The requirement was for six test stands with motors ranging from five to 600
horsepower designed to test a wide range of production line conditions. A full
range of tests including speed torque curve tests, service factor tests,
breakdown and pullup torque tests, and temperature rise by resistance tests
needed to be scheduled, saved, loaded, and executed from a central location. The
system also needed to be capable of a massive amount of data gathering. Power
consumption tests, for example, produce thousands of values per second. High
speed data trending was essential. A locked rotor test, for instance, had to be
run in less than five seconds to avoid burning up the motor. The system also had
to generate IEEE standard reports as well as custom reports. In addition to
these requirements, all testing processes and procedures had to be ISO9001
certifiable.
The solution decided upon for for this testing facility was the
CMX™ Process
Control System. This CMX System communicates with a Reliance AutoMax PLC, Voltec
Power Meter, and Valhalla Scientific Ohm Meter. The PLC is only used for
monitoring and executing shutdown logic. Measuring instruments transmit data
from the various test points in real time to the
CMX™ System where they are
logged. Over 750 tags continuously monitor and control all test stand processes.
Custom recipes, test scheduling, and executing tests is completely controled
from the
CMX™ System. All tests are executed entirely in the
CMX™ Batch Module
using Sequence Control Language (SCL.) The system provides a user-friendly
interface for editing lists of tests and for specifying the characteristics of
each test, characteristics that can be modified even while the test is in
progress. Flexibilty and easy modification of tests coupled with its saving and
loading capability means that operators can set up testing procedures quickly
and accurately and that system can be reconfigured quickly and employed without
changes in invested hardware.
Reports can be generated on demand and are automatically archived using date
and time stamps. Intuitive recipe building and open source report generating
enables users to accommodate future International Standards.
Competing in the 21st century world market will require systems that are both
powerful and flexibile. The
CMX™ Process Control System has both making it
the ideal process control system for product testing facilities.
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