Virtual Instrumentation Increases Honeywell APU Test Productivity by 600 Percent
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Author(s):
Shahzad Sarwar - Averna Technologies Inc.
Daniel Cox - Averna Technologies, Inc.
Industry:
Aerospace/Avionics
Products:
Signal Conditioning, PXI/CompactPCI, LabVIEW
The Challenge:
Increasing throughput and quality by providing flexible and reliable automation of an auxiliary power unit (APU) test facility in an industrial and disciplined aerospace engineering environment while ensuring a high rate of return on investment.
The Solution:
Using the National Instruments SCXI and LabVIEW platforms to integrate hundreds of signals and tens of measurements needed for APU testing.
"Our cost-effective solution, based on SCXI, LabVIEW, and Proligent, saved more than six months of new implementation time and more than $200K in system upgrade costs, and it continues to generate operational cost savings each year."
Honeywell APU Test Facility Automation
Regulatory agencies require engineers to periodically shop-test all APUs, which are used on most jet engines, military vehicles, rockets, and spacecrafts. In a typical test scenario, engineers ignite and power up the APU with different conditions to verify that thrust generation, fuel consumption, vibration, and other operational characteristics are conforming to design. Engineers isolate APUs, which are high-power engines, in a special cell of the test facility away from control equipment and personnel for operational safety.
A typical APU test facility manages hundreds of process signals and transducers. These signals are related to the control and measurement of engine fuel, power, and speed. Engineers need many additional measurements that involve ambient and engine temperatures, pressures, ARINC-429 communication, and vibration monitoring. Engineers also require discrete I/O for interacting with power supplies and pneumatic and hydraulic valves.
In a manual setup, APU data acquisition and control equipment occupies large control rooms, and a manual test cycle may last up to 12 hours of shift work for a single unit. Averna Technologies recently automated a Honeywell APU test facility in
Test Platform
We based our solution for upgrading and automating the Honeywell APU test facility on the NI SCXI platform. A wide range of I/O connectivity availability and signal conditioning capabilities made SCXI very effective in interfacing with the current Honeywell test infrastructure without requiring transducer or cabling changes. A single 12-slot SCXI chassis housed the entire set of signal conditioning modules, providing more than 100 I/O channels. We designed NI LabVIEW software running on a desktop that used a NI PCI-6052E multifunction data acquisition board to read and control all the APU test facility signals. This cost-effective solution based on SCXI eased test operation and simplified test management.
Configuring the facility hardware according to different types of APUs was one of the more complex and time-consuming tasks prior to automation. For the Honeywell solution, we used LabVIEW code to read standard configuration files and an operator to perform APU-dependent configuration by simply selecting the test unit type from a drop-down menu. The LabVIEW dashboard application saved us hours of manual configuration time by reliably and automatically configuring the hardware in seconds. At the same time, it provided easy, single-window access to all the process measurements while interactively controlling and operating the test setup.
We used LabVIEW code to assist in calibrating the test hardware and to integrate all the calibration results with the dashboard application. This eliminated paper traces and manual data inputs. We used the built-in LabVIEW networking capabilities and remote panel publishing to monitor the test facility from multiple desktop machines, some of which were not even located in the APU test control room.
Test Automation
We used the APIs in the software modules we developed using LabVIEW to maintain full programmatic control of test hardware from other Windows applications. With the APIs, we made each process variable available for reading and set all control variables to their values from other programs. Using this feature, engineers now can perform full test automation with Averna Proligent software.
Proligent is a process-mapping, collaborative framework that engineers can use to manage all product documentation, test procedure definitions, test criteria and specifications, facility hardware calibration and communication standards, and unit defect definitions. To explore and edit this engineering information for all APUs tested at the Honeywell facility, we used the Proligent product-based tree view, which helped us generate traceable records of modifications.
We could import specific APU test sequences into the Proligent test execution workspace and automatically run test steps one after the other. This automation used the programmatic control API for APU test hardware. With Proligent, we could run a complete test sequence without needing any operator intervention. This saved hours of test running time. As the APU test system executed tests, it displayed all the results in real time on the Proligent console. The system then generated a test result report for each unit and stored the test results in a database for later analysis and fine-tuning of the test process.
Automation based on SCXI, LabVIEW, and Proligent increased our test efficiency and quality and improved the test process by facilitating better use of test data. On the throughput side, we reduced the test cycle from an average of 12 hours per APU to a mere two hours, generating a productivity gain of 600 percent.
System Based on SCXI and LabVIEW Saves More Than $200K
This successful and highly reliable APU test automation system achieved a 6X gain in productivity along with improved quality and efficiency for Honeywell. Our cost-effective solution, based on SCXI, LabVIEW, and Proligent, saved more than six months of new implementation time and more than $200K in system upgrade costs, and it continues to generate operational cost savings each year. It is an outstanding example of how automation can produce an effective test system and strong returns on investment, with a net worth of more than $1 million.
For more information, contact:
Shahzad Sarwar
Director of Industrial and Real-Time Solutions
Averna Technologies Inc.
Tel: (613) 230-0283
Fax: (613) 236-3754
E-mail: shahzad.sarwar@averna.com
Web: www.averna.com
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