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or processes,” Armellini says. “Our customers have very specif- ic questions, which means that from time to time we have to come up with entirely new ways of getting answers efficiently.”
PC-based Control Unlike manufacturing, proj-
ects in the laboratory environ- ment are usually limited in time and require a multidisciplinary approach. Consequently, as - pects such as flexibility, mod- ularity and reusability are very important. The engineers
PC Control Blends the Worlds of Test Bench Tech
can’t replace every component in a test bench after just one proj- ect, according to Armellini: “This is why flexibility is the most important requirement for the hardware — in addition to the prerequisites of accuracy and reliability. The features of the Beckhoff solutions support us in this regard without limiting our imagination.” Availability is just as impor-
Advantech Time leverages Beckhoff’s broad I/O portfolio, especially the ELM series measurement terminals. (Image Credit: Beckhoff).
tant, including when it comes to delivery speed. Advantech Time’s customers often expect quick answers. So tight turnaround projects are the rule, not the exception. “The features of the
Beckhoff solution match our phi- losophy and way of operating perfectly,” says Luca Furlani, area manager for software devel- opment, measurement and acoustic modeling projects at Advantech Time. “Multidis - ciplinary, flexible and real-time capable — what we buy and use today may be used somewhere completely different tomorrow. As a result, it must be possible to precisely adapt the measure- ment and data acquisition sys- tem to the requirements of an application and its components.” Normally, a test bench
“grows” throughout its life cycle. After all, the engineers are con- stantly expanding their expert- ise during ongoing tests and enhancing how tests are per- formed. The hardware and soft- ware platforms can’t be the limit- ing factor to innovation. “If adapting the software by adding more signals or a new component becomes too complicated, it restricts our business develop- ment,” emphasizes Furlani. Real-time and synchroniza-
tion capabilities are essential for test bench equipment. In virtual- ly every case, certain tasks need to be performed reliably in real time — in parallel with other tasks that don’t have strict time requirements. This aspect is very impor-
tant to Furlani: “If there is an interruption during an ongoing test, much of the time and ener- gy spent up to that point can be lost. While there are systems on the market that enable real-time tasks, they are tedious to pro- gram and difficult to integrate with the rest of the system. Therefore, using them is much less efficient, especially in terms of progressive system develop- ment.”
Reliable and Expandable Initially, Advantech Time
worked mainly with manual test benches equipped with multi- plexers for data acquisition. The engineers tried different sys-
Continued on next page
Jan/Feb, 2024
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