Project Portfolio Spotlight: Transmission Functional Test

An automotive manufacturer based in China required a new assembly line and functional tester for a new line of transmissions for small front-wheel-drive vehicles. The end-of-line tester was designed to fill and flush the transmission with oil, test for proper assembly of gears and gear ratios, verify operation of solenoids in the valve body, and complete simple vibration checks. The end-of-line test stands test 100% of production, with an audit stand that contained less automation but allowed for longer, more complex testing of select parts. A repair bay was also designed to give the operator access to the test data to properly diagnose and repair a failed transmission.

Signal.X worked in partnership with the machine builder to develop a hardware architecture that best suited this test stand. A PXI running Windows is the brains of the system and is located in the main control panel. Connected to the PXI are two CompactRIO chassis via a StarFabric interface to provide distributed I/O approximately 20 feet away from the control panel. The signals were split between the cRIOs according to the sensor location and function, with one cRIO handling test stand sensors, and the other cRIO handling the part connections for the device under the test.

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