Product Test Bench

The Ask: "Can you automate our testing?"

The Background:
This partner's business developed bespoke heaters for various industrial applications. The heaters were bespoke in terms of geometry and heating profile/power. To develop the heaters in line with customer requirements there performed a variety of thermal cycles under various environmental conditions. Their test set up required manual configuration for each test and possessed final data points only, which were recorded manually.

The Output:
We started with an assessment of the equipment used within the partner's test set up. We developed a small automation panel (electrical cabinet) that was able to automatically control their test equipment to set and stabilise the environmental conditions within their test cells and also control the heaters. Further the panel possessed data collection and allowed remote access.
Ultimately this meant that test cycles were totally autonomous and could follow user defined profiles to better understand the performance of the heaters on test.

The Results:
The partner is able to run many more test cycles to improve the quality of their performance data with less manual effort required. Further, the partner is now able to provide their customers with transient performance data to show how their heater will respond outside of steady state operation.