Customer Solutions

Monitoring High Velocity Compaction

Author(s):

Jonas Uller, Midroc Electro AB

Industry:

Industrial Controls/ Devices/ Systems

Product:

Data Acquisition, LabVIEW, Signal Conditioning

The Challenge:

Monitoring the high velocity compaction of powders

The Solution:

Creating a rugged measurement system using E Series DAQ boards, signal conditioning hardware, and LabVIEW

Introduction

Hydropulsor AB develops and sells machines for high-speed cutting and forming (powder compaction and homogeneous forming) sectors that use the adiabatic softening of metals.

The high velocity compaction (HVC) of powder materials is a dynamic process carried out with one or several impact strokes in fractions of a second and involves precisely controlled energy in each stroke. The rapid compaction results in very high density. This makes it possible to mass-produce components with high-performance material characteristics and close tolerances. The high-compaction energy and the often demanding applications requires a process monitoring system for machine supervision, quality control, and overall performance.

System Software

We selected NI LabVIEW as our software development platform because it provides a powerful environment for data acquisition applications. LabVIEW also integrates a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. We developed an application, HYPvision, that is easy to operate using measurement methods. Measurement methods use intelligent software that informs engineers of the channels from which to collect data, and how to process and store that data. We performed the channel configuration in Measurement & Automation Explorer. Any Measurement & Automation Explorerdefined channel is available in HYPvision. Using this method-based approach, an operator can manage HYPvision with a short introduction, but the resulting action is quite complex.

Empowering Users with LabVIEW VIs

With HYPvision, you can develop measurement methods and modify the application itself by adding dynamically linked LabVIEW VIs in the program. For example, you can add new real-time data-processing methods to expand the analysis capabilities. With these real-time capabilities, you can perform calculations immediately after each punch sequence or in analyze mode when studying the collected raw data. The real-time mode is valuable for producing thousands of units and calculating a quality measure for each unit from raw data. HYPvision also contains graphical post-processing of data. You can view and analyze collected data in a graph window. For further processing in other tools, you can export data to a standard spreadsheet form. In addition, HYPvision can connect a check-weighter unit used for component weight measurement.

We designed HYPvision using graphical object-oriented programming (GOOP), combined with LabVIEW data flow programming for high-performance parts. The design allows for a high degree of code reuse and application expansion possibility.

System Hardware

With stroke energies up to 200 kNm and in an often severe production environment, the system has to be extremely rugged to survive. We choose an industrial PC and rack mounted it inside a chassis. We used the NI PCI-6071E to measure positions, pressure, and other signals. We used 5B modules for signal conditioning and hardware for 32 channels. By adding another DAQ board, we can expand this number without software modifications. For certain applications, we used a PCI-6023E DAQ board for measurements with two different sample rates, expanding the number of available channels to 40.

We connected the standard signals to the measurement system with a M1-X1 cable from the control system. We can connect additional signals using the BNC panel on the measurement system, giving the customers the flexibility to add new signals to the system. The trigger signal comes from the PLC that is controlling the process and connects to PFI0. We used a gate-type trigger, so the measurement occurs when the signal is either low or high.

Results

Our solution for a process monitoring system was a measurement system based on PC-technology placed inside an IP 55 certified enclosure. The system uses an industrial PC running Windows NT 4, one PCI-6071E board, and optionally one PCI-6023E DAQ boards and a signal conditioning 5B unit. The system can handle up to 32 differential channels. Sampling is normally performed within the range 1,000 to 10,000 Hz. The optional PCI-6023E board allows multiple sample rates for long-term surveillance.

HYPvision gives Hydropulsor and customers of HVC machines a tool for monitoring and developing the HVC process. For production purposes, HYPvision can perform quality control of product and machine surveillance.

For more information about High Velocity Compaction and Adiabatic Softening visit www.hydropulsor.com For more information about measurement systems visit www.midroc.se and contact Midroc Electro AB at info.iel@midroc.se Midroc Electro AB Jonas Uller/Jörgen Lundberg Lagergrens gata 4 652 26 Karlstad Sweden Tel: +46 54 13 05 50 E-mail: info.iel@midroc.se

 

 

 

uller.pdf

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