Advanced Automotive Testing Technology

Advanced Automotive Testing Technology

As one of the world\'s leading metrology companies, Renishaw products are widely used in manufacturing industries around the world. In the current environment of increasingly fierce market competition, improving production efficiency and improving product precision have become indispensable links for enterprise development. Renishaw products are purpose-built to meet the needs of technological progress and market development in industry.

Coordinate measuring machine probes produced by Renishaw have become industry standard configurations and are widely used; their workpiece and tool setting probes can quickly and accurately adjust workpiece and tool setting on CNC machine tools. It can accurately measure parts and tools.cutting ls to improve the automation level and processing precision of machine tools; the ML10 Gold laser interferometer can also correct the position and geometric accuracy of machinels, coordinate measuring machines and positioning devices; the QC10 ballbar is a fast instrument that conveniently and cost-effectively tests the two-axis linkage performance of CNC machine tools and performs fault diagnosis; other instruments include line arrays, circular arrays for position feedback, and laser Raman spectrometers for materials analysis. Renishaw products play an important role in the production, research and development of manufacturing industries around the world.

Integrated online tool measurement and machine performance testing

Hewland Engineering Company is a global supplier of products sports car racing.Transmission parts manufacturer. Recently, the company installed Renishaw\'s automatic tool setting and tool breakage detection systems on its machine tools, which significantly improved production efficiency. In order to maintain strong competitiveness of its products in the international market, Hewland Engineering Company has established a modern professional transmission manufacturing plant in White Waltham.

● Eliminate laborious and time-consuming manual work

Manual tool adjustment and tool breakage detection are often very technical and require a lot of work. intensive work. Hewland Engineering Company learned that the fully automatic Renishaw NC1 online measuring system can save a lot of time, effectively identify tool damage, prevent more part scrap and ensure machining quality keep on going. Consequentlyent, on a double workstation with a heavy workload, an NC1 in-line measuring system is installed on a Matsuura vertical machining center. This non-contact measuring system has the ability to verify the diameter and length of each specific tool without the need for manual intervention. Each machining cycle of this machine tool lasts 35 to 45 minutes. The company operates in two shifts. The time saved by using the automated tool setting system is therefore very considerable.

Tool breakage detection

Automatic tool breakage detection at higher feedrates, including multi-tooth inspection of every tooth of the disc cutter capabilities, greatly reducing the amount of rework required by Hewland Engineering Company, while further improving the quality of high-level products. On the Matsuura vertical machining center, the laser emitting head andThe receiving unit of the NC1 online measuring system are placed diagonally at both ends of the workbench, so that the detection device does not affect the exchange of the workbench. Typical parts processed by this machine include clutch bushings machined from steel forgings (see Figure 1), each set has 8 sides and more than 1,000 parts are produced each year. Only four tools are needed to machine this part: a double-edged roughing cutter, an 8 mm diameter end mill, a forming knife and an engraving knife.

● Further improve productivity and quality assurance

After the first successful installation of the NC1 online measurement system , it was quickly installed in the Daewoo company. A second system is installed on the Mynx production vertical machining center to inspect many different small tools and specific tools. Thismachine is used to produce a large number of high precision parts (including some complex cam curves). This requires that the entire tool forming path be checked to ensure the accuracy of part processing, rather than simply measuring the tool length and diameter. This function can only be achieved with the NC1 non-contact online tool measuring system. In addition, the machine tool uses Ray Nishaw and provides special software, and the whole process would be very difficult if done manually.

The NC1 system uses patented MicroHolet™ technology, which provides airflow through the laser holes to protect the coolant and cutting pins without affecting precision . At the same time, Renishaw also developed its \"water drop protection\" software to overcome false triggering caused by drops.drops of cutting fluid, and the effect is very obvious.

Quantity Ensure the quality of processing by guaranteeing the performance of the machine

A CNC machine tool used for 20 years due to a certain The clearance of the root shaft is very large, which caused considerable problems for Hewland Engineering Company. The company received a quote of £5,000 to replace components that may have caused the game to fail. However, the opportunity to test the Renishaw QC10 Ballbar resolved this issue.

The Ballbar QC10 continuously and correctly measures the arc trajectory between any two axes in the machine\'s connecting axis. Once the arc test process is complete (usually in minutes), the software that controls the Ballbar test begins to analyze and diagnose the results. The analysis software gives 21 different machine error values ​​and solutionss. The entire testing and analysis process, including initial instrument setup, takes only about 10 minutes. When the QC10 Ballbar was used to test the machine tool, the Ballbar software correctly diagnosed the amount and direction of axis play. Then enter this value into the machine tool axis compensation parameter, and the error caused by backlash will be compensated and corrected immediately.

At the same time, the Ballbar QC10 system was used for quality assurance of various machine tools in the processing workshops of Hewland Engineering Company.

The new RESR ring meets the requirements of automotive test equipment

It is true that the handling performance of cars modern vehicles are far better than that of early vehicles, but many automotive researchers and test equipment manufacturers foThere is still a lot of work to do. Measuring and analyzing lateral acceleration, roll angle, degree of pitch and oThese parameters can help develop cars with better and safer driving performance.

AB Dynamics is one of the companies engaged in this work and has supplied a large number of test equipment to many top companies around the world. A recent partially completed project in Bradford-on-Avon has seen the company become one of the world\'s leading automotive suppliers, supplying 17 steering control units to test labs and tire manufacturers. Current equipment uses the latest encoder technology from Renishaw. Figure 2 shows AB Dynamics steering control equipment.

● Accuracy and repeatability

AB Dynamics CEO said that in the area of ​​instant testing in the automobile industry, csome controls are difficult to perform manually, such as gradually increasing the frequency while guaranteeing the same amplitude. Also, it is very difficult to generate a very standard positive signal when the running speed is very low and the tendency is for triangular signals to appear frequently. In order to be able to compare one car to another, to try to obtain good results or to modify the car slightly, it is necessary to have correct, repeatable and well-defined input signals.

● Jointly developed with Renishaw

AB Dynamics\' steering control test bed features a powerful servo motor connected to the column and a steering wheel that allows manual steering when the computer is not involved in control. The electronic components of the control mechanism include the necessary motor controllers and amplifiers ainif only the means of recording input signals and processing data.

● Overcoming the influence of high temperature

Modern cars are often tested under high temperature conditions, and the grid scale must withstand such high temperatures. However, laboratory experiments at high temperatures showed that attaching the scale to a stainless steel ring caused the p-band to slip at the junction, causing the signal phase to become misaligned. To this end, AB Dynamics and Renishaw jointly discussed this topic, which is gratifying. Remarkably, Renishaw has achieved great success with its new generation of RESR circular gratings (see Figure 3), which directly etch grating lines onto the circumference of the stainless steel ring, eliminating the need for traditional grating. The RESR rotary encoder and the newRGH20 readhead are easily interchangeable with the existing RGR rotary encoder and RGH24 readhead, so AB Dynamics encountered no problems during installation.

It is very essential to correctly align the grating ring and the read head. There are a number of through-holes in AB Dynamics\' control mechanism to secure the read head in place, which require alignment with the X, Y and Z axes respectively. Renishaw has integrated a tri-color LED on the read head reading, which can indicate when it has been set to the correct position, making system installation and debugging very simple.

● High power

The direction control device can receive various input signals: positive wave, square wave and numerous shock signals. composed of different frequencies. The new version of AB Dynamics software is more powerful than the original software. It may increasement speed and torque and provide a top speed of 1800°/s. Methods to further increase torque are still being developed. In track testing, on cars equipped with power steering, less than 5 or 10 Nm of torque is required to perform most actions. However, if the electric assist is ineffective or if a follow-up test is performed, the wheels turn quickly enough to overcome the depletion of hydraulic thrust caused by the power inefficiency, more torque is required.

The steering control mechanism can be used to record a series of complete data input to the steering mechanism by the driving device, and then for testing it can be returned as required under the control of the control mechanism. Second rate.

● Used in conjunction with GPS

The latest development consist to add a road following function to the steering control mechanism. Working in conjunction with a “set of motion components” – a gyroscope and three accelerometers combined with GPS – the control mechanism can track trajectory or control the route. This ensures that the vehicle follows the desired path by more than a few centimeters without error. Road tracking has been used to set \'rollover\' standards to ensure drivers don\'t encounter the \'rollover\' problem that has plagued the past few years when driving a car.

● Reliability

In dynamic testing, signals can be repeatedly input and obtained from a specific test Conclusion Data requires the most reliable technology. In many occasions, just like the RESR circular grid, like the application cases, it is the result of apartnership between the world\'s leading OEM manufacturers.

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