Industry : Manufacturing

Category : Turn-key solution

The Challenge:

To integrate the functionality of numerous independent sub-systems of a large-scale battery test system into a single, easy-to-use, virtual instrument while increasing the capabilities of the earlier system. The customer wanted a fully automated and integrated system that would control the charger, perform the data logging, and analyze the data for battery classification

The Technology:

Hardware  : Compact FieldPoint, High-Precision DAQ, Switches, SCXI, PXI/CompactPCI, NI 4060 DMM
Software   : LabVIEW

The Solution :

Soliton developed a completely integrated test system; designed to test the batteries using two 12-slot SCXI chassis fully loaded with the 1127 high voltage multiplexer modules. The system was wired to measure the terminal voltages of 1280 batteries simultaneously via an NI 4060 DMM. FieldPoint modules were used to control the chargers and the charging currents The PXI based system running the LabVIEW application integrated the functionality of numerous independent data loggers and PLC based controllers into a single virtual instrument leading to improved test productivity, flexibility, and accuracy

Engineering Challenges:

• Integration - Integration of the different hardware modules
• Throughput – To test 1280 batteries simultaneously, by using the hardware efficiently so as to cut down on the cost

Value Addition:

• Flexibility - The software architecture was designed so that any test sequence could be applied to any charger irrespective of the state of the other chargers. The test set-up screen offered complete flexibility to the user to configure the test sequence and the length of the sequence thus overcoming one of the main limitations of the earlier PLC based system
• Classification - The system performed analysis in a matter of seconds and gave a printout of the color-coded classification eliminating tedious manual classification using the numerous printouts from the stand-alone data loggers
• Productivity enhancements - Increased the speed of testing by a factor of 5
• Networking capabilities - The reports were easily accessible by using the web-browser over the factory network
• Cost reduction - We incorporated a clever measurement scheme into the system design, which helped reduce the required number of SCXI modules from 40 to 24 thereby saving $28,000 for our customer

Commendation :

This Paper was awarded 'The Winner-Overall Best Application, Test and Quality ' for the NI Week 2000 Paper Contest
http://sine.ni.com/cs/app/doc/p/id/cs-427