Tag Archive for: iTestSystem
Modern Tools Series: What’s In The Box?
Modern Tools Series: What’s In The Box?
This box reveal may not be quite as dramatic as the ending of “Seven,” the ’95 serial killer thriller that blew moviegoers’ minds, but the ITM team is throwing open the latches nonetheless.
In this case, our team is taking you on a quick tour of a recently deployed Rugged Data Acquisition System. These particular black boxes of tech are riding around on high-dollar fracking equipment to remotely monitor all sorts of triggering events. Our crew builds them on the regular, and the end result is that our clients can better understand what sorts of stress, strain and vibration is taking place both en-route to their site and once operations begin.
ITM is known for building rugged measurement systems and data logging solutions that are deployed on everything from Class A trucks, to well frac trailers, to dam and bridge structures, oil pipelines, gensets, boilers and more.
So, without further ado, what’s in the box?
We recommend a handful of essential components and elements if you are looking to build your own rugged measurement system:
- An Industrial Embedded PC. We love the Nuvo-7000LP. Another favorite is the Advantech UNO-2484G-9S55.
- You’ll need industrial grade connectivity, and you can’t beat Peplink’s cellular router options. And remember to outfit that unit with an AT&T or Verizon plan and get that activated card installed.
- A remote desktop application is a must, and we usually turn to LogMeIn for our remote access and file management. This allows us to pull up any of our units no matter where they are in the world to check in on status or grab some data for our clients.
- Speaking of data, depending on your job, you’ll likely need lots of data storage capability. Our preference is a 2 terabyte USB drive, which gives us an almost unlimited amount of space. If needed, we can store about six months worth of data before hitting capacity.
- Since our industrial PC is running Windows, we use iTestSystem, our proprietary engineering measurement software platform that enables test engineers to organize, acquire, view, and analyze data from machinery, processes, vehicles and other complex systems.
- To complete the box, our industrial PC is connected to an NI c-DAQ outfitted with strain, vibration and voltage modules.
- What about power you ask? In our fracking instance, we connected to an alternator which charges a bank of batteries in the RAC.
So there you have it. That’s what’s in the box. Build your own, or get in touch with our team, and we’ll customize a system for your specific needs.
We also install and service all of our equipment. So if something breaks in the field, we can get you back up and collecting data or even assist with data analysis.
For more information about our rugged data acquisition systems, on-site system deployment or data analysis services, contact Josh Fishback via email at josh.fishback@itestsystem.com or phone at (844) 837-8797 x705.
Applying Modern Methods to Study Civil Structures
Concrete Science: ITM Applying Modern Methods to Study Civil Structures
ITM has spent the last two decades testing the limits of steel, aluminum, composites, and other materials. From the heights of space to the depths of underground mines, our team has improved the art of using strain gauges to measure stress on metal, machines and complex systems. As the Milford, Ohio, firm enters its third decade, ITM engineers have returned to the lab to demonstrate some of the methods to measure rebar reinforced concrete using strain gauge technologies.
Concrete literally holds together much of our modern world, yet, many of our civil structures built in the mid-20th century are crumbling. From bridges to buildings, concrete is cracking and failing at an alarming rate, yet few are applying modern engineering methods to measure and monitor this foundational material we all rely upon.
As part of recent experiments, ITM staffers crafted test materials into mini concrete beams to illustrate how the materials hold up under stress and, more importantly, what it takes to capture the data. In our lab we placed 4-inch square by 18-inch long concrete beams under several thousand pounds of load using a hydraulic press. Gauges were affixed not only on the outside of the beams but also embedded inside the beam along the rebar used to reinforce the concrete. We used a laptop running our iTestSystem Software, an NI cDAQ-9171 Chassis, and NI-9236 modules to capture data from the strain gauges installed on the concrete specimens.
The data captured as the beams were brought to failure revealed the superiority of certain sensor bonding materials and methods during the testing. Importantly, it also showed that the stress along the internal rebar and that of the gauges on the outside of the concrete beams remained in sync as evidenced by the graphs that reveal the stress data.
Our team will continue these studies to show various methods currently being used to measure stress & strain in concrete structures and concrete crack propagation, the importance of which is only reinforced by news of deadly building collapses and aging civil structures. Stay tuned for more blogs detailing our findings and best practices for using today’s technology to measure structural concrete cracking.
For more information on this work, our testing services or iTestSystem, contact: Ryan Welker – Integrated Test & Measurement (ITM), LLC – ryan.welker@itestsystem.com
iTestSystem 20 Coming Soon!
Coming Soon! iTestSystem 20.0
When: January 2022
The latest version of ITM’s engineering measurement software platform will make gathering data easier and more affordable than ever.
For more information about iTestSystem, contact Chase Petzinger at (844) 837-8797 x704 or via email at chase.petzinger@itestsystem.com.
ITM Helps Miami University Students Succeed SAE Baja
The students and advisors huddled around the computer react as they watch the signal yield an immediate spike within ITM’s iTestSystem software…
Identify Damaging Events with Statistical Analysis
Quickly Identify Significant Events in Large Data Sets with Statistical Analysis
Use statistical analysis for TestView Plus and Automated Analytics to extract statistics like minimum, maximum, and mean from each sensor. The results of the selectable analysis is embedded within the data file as searchable meta data.
Automated Analytics users can quickly identify data files within large data sets that contain sensor events of interest. When paired with Trigger Analysis and the Notification Service, these data files can be automatically selected and sent via email in remote monitoring applications.
About iTestSystem
iTestSystem is an engineering measurement software platform that enables test engineers to organize, acquire, view, and analyze data from machinery, processes, vehicles and other complex systems. iTestSystem was specifically designed for use with NI cDAQ or FieldDAQ hardware for data collection and data logging.
For more information about our iTestSystem or ITM’s testing services, contact Ryan Welker @ (844) 837-8797 x702.
In Vehicle Vibration Testing
building a rugged and flexible in-vehicle testing solution to measure the vibration levels.
Engineering Data Acquisition Tools: NI-9237 Bridge Input Module
For bridge type sensors and most strain gauges configurations (full and half bridges), our engineers will opt for the NI-9237 C-Series module to acquire strain and bridge data instead of the NI-9235 or NI-9236 modules. Unlike the NI-9236 module, the NI-9237 can acquire data from:
- Any resistance strain gauge (not just 120 or 350 Ohm)
- Quarter, half, and full-bridge strain gauge configurations
- Torque and load cells (off-the-shelf and custom)
The NI-9237 is a 4-Channel C Series strain/bridge input module that contains circuitry to power, scale and calibrate strain and load sensors . For quarter and some half bridge measurements a bridge completion module must be used in conjunction with this module. The NI-9237 module provides internal bridge excitation (2.5V, 3.3V, 5V, or 10V) and shunt calibration resistors for sensor scaling verification. To collect synchronized and scaled high-speed (50kHz) structure strain and load cell data, use our iTestSystem engineering measurement software.
For more information about the NI-9237, DAQ module rental, strain gauge installations or our data logging solution iTestSystem, contact Ryan Welker via email: ryan.welker@itestsystem.com or phone: (844) 837-8797 x706.
Weed Out Unwanted Data with Filter Analysis
For engineers, the faster one can weed out the noise, the more efficiently one can deliver actual solutions.
The software architects at Integrated Test & Measurement have added new plugin technology to iTestSystem, their proprietary engineering measurement software platform, to enhance the user experience by allowing users to analyze data faster by filtering frequencies simply.
In this blog, a new series by ITM, we’ll share some details about one of the features within TestView Plus, the project based data viewing function within iTestSystem.
Once you’ve configured your test using NI MultiDAQ hardware and begun logging strain gauge and accelerometer data, it is time to do an FFT (fast Fourier transform) Analysis to further analyze your signals for frequency information to learn how the system you are testing is actually vibrating.
As part of that process, the Filter Analysis plugin allows users to filter out unwanted frequencies — say anything over 100 Hz — which only requires checking a simple low-pass filter option, a tool embedded right within TestView Plus.
Without leaving TestView Plus, you can simply choose which signals you wish to view, configure a few options on the screen and click the FFT button to output helpful data files for your report or plot directly within TestView Plus to begin isolating specific vibration issues.
Stay tuned for additional iTestSystem features.
About iTestSystem
iTestSystem is an engineering measurement software platform that enables test engineers to organize, acquire, view, and analyze data from machinery, processes, vehicles and other complex systems. iTestSystem was specifically designed for use with National Instruments (NI) cDAQ hardware for data collection and data logging.
For more information about our iTestSystem or ITM’s testing services, contact Ryan Welker @ (844) 837-8797 x702.
Tag Archive for: iTestSystem
ITM provides software development, structural and mechanical testing services, industrial monitoring, strain gauging, and data analysis solutions to clients on six continents. ITM is a recognized National Instruments Gold Alliance Partner.
