CASE STUDIES

Reactor Systems typically involve experimental setups that can run for days on end. Using NI data acquisition systems as a foundation, we can read from multiple types of industrial sensors, and interface to various devices like MFCs, chillers, VSDs etc. Clients can define custom recipes to run and monitor the system using a SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition) approach.

We have worked on energy research projects in both academic and commercial applications, such as 4-in-1 Smart Utilities Plant and Thermal Storage for District Cooling System (DCS). The key challenges are to integrate many different devices and sensors into a single platform, and to communicate with subsystems via industrial protocols like BACnet and Modbus.

Laser-based applications require the client to control the frequency, power and enabling of the laser, and synchronizing it to other subsystems like motion control, scanner and camera systems to deliver an automated measurement setup. On the software side, post-processing may involve integrating MATLAB and Python script calls into the main application.

The Mechanical Bend Tester application controls a Universal Test Machine to perform monotonic and cyclic bend stress testing on a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) device. Up to 24 strain channels are monitored, and test conditions could be defined in software. In addition, acoustic emission data is to be acquired via a 3rd party system (Vallen Systeme), which requires LabVIEW to communicate with Vallen Systeme’s standalone software.

Predictive maintenance is a crucial component in manufacturing, where an unexpected downtime due to faulty machinery can be very costly to the business owners. Predictive maintenance can be implemented with machine learning models, but they need to be trained with data logged by running the machinery to failure, which is also a costly and time-consuming process. In this research application with Advanced Remanufacturing and Technology Centre (ARTC), we developed novel features that avoids the need to run the machinery to failure during training, using the NI Analytics & Machine Learning Toolkit. Separately, we also developed a model to inspect printed QR labels on cardboard packaging to determine print defects.

The application is designed for a manufacturing process that spans weeks and requires the user to continuously monitor the temperatures within their chamber. The temperature control is performed by a recipe in a furnace temperature controller. We designed the application to interface to the controller and log temperature data, and at specific milestones during the process, pull these data into a custom Excel report. The system has been scaled up to allow the operator to control 24 independent furnaces.

Have you encountered a situation where there is a need to upgrade an existing LabVIEW system, which may have been developed by your colleagues or another party? Nimble Focus Consulting can understand your requirements and provide a service to evaluate your existing program and code base. We will then draft a plan on how to integrate the upgrades into the current architecture. In the event a software redesign is deemed necessary, we will also communicate this clearly in our proposal.

Do you have a requirement to control or interface to a device or instrument using LabVIEW, but discovered there is no ready LabVIEW driver for it? Some specialized hardware may not come with a LabVIEW driver out of the box, but we can help you overcome this obstacle! By creating wrapper code and other methods, we can provide a “bridge” to the hardware’s native drivers that can then be safely called from our LabVIEW application.