New Danfoss VLT® Decentral Drive E cient, reliable and powerful

Superior Systems’
test rig puts car
hinges through
their paces
Tests hinge on
precision control
Miniature Drive Specialists
COVENTRY-BASED industrial controls
expert Superior Systems has developed
a rig for testing a new generation of
car door hinges for a leading
automotive components supplier. The
rig had to be reliable, easy to operate
and able to transfer the test results to
a mainframe computer.
Essentially, the rig consists of an arm
that is attached to the hinge being
tested, which engages with a platen
that runs around a 1m-radius curved
track. Weights can be added to the
arm to simulate the loads that a car
door would impose on the hinge.
This arrangement allows the arm to
be moved through any angle (up to a
maximum dictated by the design) and
for the speed of the movement to be
controlled accurately between 1m/min
and 1m/s. A second, similarlyequipped
platen boosts the rig’s
versatility.
To control the servomotors used on
the platens, Superior chose Mitsubishi
MR-J3 servo drives, while overall
control of the rig is provided by a
Mitsubishi Qn PLC. A Mitsubishi E1070
colour HMI, with a built-in keypad, is
used to set up and operate the
machine.
A typical test sequence begins by
pre-exercising the hinge for several
cycles at a relatively high speed. It is
then operated through one cycle at a
lower speed while detailed
measurements are made of its
performance.
Using the HMI terminal, all that the
machine operators need to do to set
up a test is to enter the speed and
angle of travel for the exercise cycles
and the number of cycles required,
together with the speed and angle of
travel for the measurement cycle. The
test is then initiated at the touch of a
button, with the results collected
automatically by the PLC and
transferred to a mainframe system via
Mitsubishi’s MX Sheet software.
The HMI keypad is also used to
access ancillary functions, such as
facilities for manual jogging as an aid
to mechanical set-up. While the tests
are in progress, the HMI screen
displays a graphical representation of
the results in real time.
According to Superior’s proprietor,
John Ferris, two of the main attractions
of the Mitsubishi PLC for this
application were its support for
Ethernet and its ability to run the MX
Sheet software. This Excel
communications support tool, he
explains, “made it easy for us to collect
the data produced by the test rig and
to format it for use by the end-user’s
mainframe systems, while the Ethernet
connectivity provided us with the
means to transfer the data to those
systems. Its data formatting and
transfer were very straightforward to
set up – no complicated programming
was needed.”
PRECISE STEPS FOR
SAFE OPERATION
PRECISION MINIATURE
STEPPER MOTORS
satisfy the most demanding medical applications.
Faulhaber Precistep stepper motors are 2-phase
multi-polar motors with
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exceptionally high power
to
volume
ratio.
The
large
magnet
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delivers high torque
density and the rare earth
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for consistent stable
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encoders and
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diameter and are also available with integrated
lead screws.
EMS
www.ems-limited.co.uk
0118 9817391
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