Electrical Test System

plugssocketsA major manufacturer of electrical accessories, plugs, sockets and switches upgraded the control system on their existing endurance test system extending asset life for minimal capital investment.

In common with many legacy test systems whilst the majority of the system hardware was still reliable the control software was outdated and no longer supportable.  Some items of hardware including analogue scanner and digital interface units were obsolete and suitable replacement equipment was sourced.

The test facility comprises of 18 rack mounted test machines and associated equipment including electrical supply and voltage regulation; resistive and inductive load banks and fluorescent load banks. 

Various tests are applied to the diverse range of products manufactured. These include temperature rise tests, monitoring product temperature under load, mechanical endurance testing of sockets and switches and making and breaking of switch or socket contacts under adverse loads.

The original program custom written in Pascal and running under QNX operating system on an Arcnet network was replaced with a new PC based system.

The upgraded system facilities include; user definable test sequences with a central test sequence library; automatic calculation of optimal load bank configuration; comprehensive data capture, alarm monitoring with automatic rig shutdown on critical alarms; remote real-time access to the test rigs from office PC’s etc.

If you would like advice on a test project contact us.