When vehicle engines arrive at an automobile assembly plant, production engineers test a statistical sample of their delivery as part of the quality control process. Engineers make many measurements on the sample, including oil temperature, water temperature, oil pressure, fuel pressure, engine revolutions per minute, etc. By carrying out exhaustive testing of a representative sample of their engines, production engineers can learn much about the quality of their products and the competency of their suppliers.
System requirements
Until recently, most of the test systems within automobile plants used programmable logic controllers (PLCs). However, a Korean automobile manufacturer recently started exploring the possibility of using the PC-based architecture to create a scalable, inexpensive automobile testing system. The system would be used to monitor and test engine firing.
The desired functions were:
* Realtime data acquisition and control.
* Automatic decision-making based on test data.
* Automatic measurement.
* Transmission of production data.
System architecture
Eighteen stations were installed in an engine-firing testing area, and each station performed the identical function. Each station consisted of Advantech's IPC-6806P industrial computer; an ADAM-4520 converter and ADAM-5000/485 distributed DA&C system. Advantech's IPC-622 industrial computer was used as a network server to connect the 18 testing stations through an Ethernet-based computer network. This served data to the company-wide network making testing information accessible to management throughout the company. The picture shows the system architecture.
The main functions of this testing system are automatic decision-making based on the testing results, test planning, measurement, data analysis and reporting. A human-machine interface was developed for the operators. ADAM-5000 input and output modules were connected with the hardware to sequence data and data acquisition. Through the ADAM-4520 converter, the RS485 signals from ADAM-5000 series were converted to RS232 signals and then transmitted to the control station.
The testing system has been installed and is successfully performing the same functions as the expensive, proprietary PLC-based system that it replaced. The company is so satisfied that it is considering installing the system in its other domestic and overseas production facilities. The company regards its switch to an open-systems PC-based testing architecture to be an important part of maintaining its manufacturing competitiveness.
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