May 17 - NEW YORK, The successful efforts of engineering firms and research laboratories to create ustomized data acquisition systems to analyze and test product prototypes rendered from computer-aided design programs is discussed in the May 2004 issue of Mechanical Engineering, a publication of ASME.
According to magazine, the engineering firm Innoventor Inc., St. Louis, Mo., developed a customized data acquisition system to test the actuators that control the wing flaps on an airplane. The system allowed the designers to analyze the performance of the wing components in a total of 40,000 simulated flights.
Innoventor's data acquisition system also "can highlight information of particular interest to the engineers, such as how the actuators perform in particularly cold temperatures or in strong winds," explains Mechanical Engineering.
In another case study, Soliton Automation Ltd. in India created data acquisition software and hardware to act as a vision system in a pencil manufacturing plant. The data acquisition system provides feedback on defects in wood textures, lead colors, assembly, and other criteria.
Before installing the vision-based system with data capability, the pencil maker employed more than 120 people to check pencils as they rolled down the assembly line, according to Mechanical Engineering.
The magazine also discusses a data acquisition system that is linked to a gas micro-sensor. Developed by Argonne National Laboratory (Ill.), the data acquisition system produces information enabling scientists to detect minute quantities of gaseous chemicals in indoor and outdoor environments.
"Data acquisition systems can be configured to fulfill a range of purposes," says Mechanical Engineering. "They are used for test and measurement and for industrial automation, and also can serve as the eyes of a production line or nose of a sensor."
To access the article, "Taking the Mechanical Pulse," visit the ASME Web site, http://www.asme.org.
Mechanical Engineering magazine is one of many quality technical publications of ASME.
Founded in 1880 as the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, today's ASME is a 120,000-member professional organization focused on technical, educational and research issues of the engineering and technology community. ASME conducts one of the world's largest technical publishing operations, holds numerous technical conferences worldwide, and offers hundreds of professional development courses each year. ASME sets internationally recognized industrial and manufacturing codes and standards that enhance public welfare and safety.
