PRODUCTION AND QUALITY TESTING SYSTEM

manages distributed manufacturing of telecommunications boards

by Shahzad Sarwar, Averna Technologies Inc.

Our customer's new product line was targeted to produce large numbers of networking hardware boards that require a flexible, reliable and traceable quality testing setup. The customer needed to centrally manage the product flow, test criteria and results, version and revision specific test procedures, and several other operational details all for a set of distributed product lines located at different and remote contract manufacturer sites. Our customer also needed to maintain all test specifications, procedure sequences and results in a traceable fashion, and they needed different levels of access to interact with managerial, engineering, or operational parts of the production and testing system. An open architecture and flexible test code development environment successfully integrated an extensive range of hardware including power supplies, oscilloscopes, signal generators, optical switches, flash programmers, and a close interface to work with self-testing features of the products using RS-232, GPIB and JTAG protocols.

Proligent provides a close parallelism between real-life production and quality testing steps with extensive features for production management and testing so the user can create new products, define production process and specify process operations. These engineering tools have extensive editing capabilities to ease both product and process management activities. These features became useful in defining and managing the product flow details.

For quality testing, some of the process operations are associated with test case modules. These modules carry out the actual interface with hardware and execute test logic. Proligent provides a general framework for test case development and combines these in test sequences the customer can use with TestStand test executive. The sequence definition module allows a one-window access to existing repository sequences, version management, test station assignment and test sequence deployment combined with general sequence editing features. The availability of instrument drivers, ease of integration of native code modules, along with support for serial, GPIB, and Ethernet communication made it a natural choice to write the test case modules in LabVIEW.

Proligent also manages the production logistics including inventory, allocation, and calibration records of test instruments. Combined with its instrument command definition module, it provides an abstraction layer between the test cases and instruments that deliver interchangeability without modifying the testing code. The Proligent execution module performs the shop floor operations needed for the overall system. Running in conjunction with TestStand, it updates test software and testing criteria in real-time, provides an operator interface with test progess-monitoring, aids in unit failure and repair reporting, and keeps track of test history of units under test.

Proligent and database tables exchange all process description and test performance data through SQL. Product classification, test sequences, test case modules, along with their version and revision history, are maintained in a database providing complete traceability of production and testing evolution. Testing results with station related details and execution times are all recorded in appropriate database tables and available for future use.

The customer maintains a local database at each remote test station that is updated in real time during execution, and the testing data is periodically replicated to a central database. Each time, before executing a new test case, the execution module synchronizes the local software version and test criteria with the central database. With the exception of the central database, all database instances are implemented using MSDE, and require no additional licensing costs. Distributed databases also permit an operational reliability that can tolerate temporary network failures.

Proligent's data viewer module offers access to test data and enables the user to extract testing yield and trending information. Report generation capabilities of LabVIEW and Crystal Report are exhaustively used to generate production and test summaries users can view through data viewer, and summary reports are provided while grouping the data in categories defined per test station, process or instrument. Statistical process control is possible with full access to testing data that can be elaborated to reveal sensitive parameters for an efficient production and quality testing.

We created a complete production and quality testing system with an efficient and cost-effective implementation that matched the needs of a distributed and enterprise-wide integrated system with multilevel access to production and testing tools. A collaborative integration of LabVIEW, TestStand, SQL server, Crystal Report and ASP technologies combined with hardware drivers and embedded programming tools created a functional and reliable setup that expedites and facilitates production and testing operations while saving both time and money spent on these operations.

National Instrument

GRANULATING DEVICE

reduces rubber bales and processing time

PROBLEM: A manufacturer of surgical gloves had a problem in establishing a new production line to meet their capacity requirements and quality standards. A major raw ingredient in the gloves was natural rubber which was received in the form of large raw rubber bales. Dissolving of the full rubber bales would take an unacceptably long amount of time and be very costly unless another approach was found.

One proposed solution was the installation of a granulator to turn the bales into small particles that would dissolve faster. The machine had to be capable of reducing the heat sensitive material, be built to sanitary standards and not employ talc in the reduction process. Finding a machine that could meet all of these requirements was not going to be an easy task.

Solution

Franklin Miller Inc.'s application engineers worked closely with the customer and performed some preliminary tests on the rubber bales. After this evaluation process, a 100 HP Franklin Miller VulcanatorŪ was specially built for the application.

The Vulcanator is a granulating device designed for the rubber industry. It features a unique low friction cutting design that quickly reduces rubber into small bits with a powerful cutting mechanism that minimizes heat rise. This custom unit was designed with all contact parts constructed of stainless steel and a special seal system to accommodate their application. Access doors were provided for easy maintenance of all major cutting elements for cleaning and sanitizing.

After completion of construction the machine was put through a performance test with the actual material. The Vulcanator powerfully reduced a number of full bales and met the required output size.

The unit was then installed at the plant site and started up. The results: not only is the new process meeting production goals, but a higher quality product is being produced. The Vulcanator has shaved a great deal of time off the dissolving process and in so doing has made the operation more profitable. In fact, according to the plant engineer the dissolving time has been reduced by 93%.

Franklin Miller Inc.

Canadian Industrial Equipment News March 2003