Measuring tool for manufacturing composites
Airbus needed to encapsulate sensors using external libraries and sensors wired to National Instruments measurement modules in a single test facility to assess different physical phenomena during the manufacturing phase of a composite in order to characterize it and detect manufacturing time savings.
Phalanx used the LabVIEW development environment, PXI acquisition hardware with PXIe 8821 embedded controller, and specification tracking through NI Requirements Gateway to develop a robust and intuitive PXI-based application.
The Airbus Group Innovation (AGI) Research & Technology hub located within the Bouguenais technocampus plays an essential role within Airbus SAS. In order to remain competitive in the face of competition, Airbus must offer better quality products more quickly. This is only possible by focusing on innovation. AGI selected Phalanx to bring our expertise in the field of acquisition and testing to realize software for the acquisition of physical phenomena occurring during the composite manufacturing process.
Un datalogger au service de l'innovation aéronautique
In an article published on March 9, 2016 in L’Usine Nouvelle called "What if aeronautics shunned composites?", we learn that locks concerning composites, and specifically control operations, are hard to break. Indeed, it is written “Alas, with prices which remain high […], delicate maintenance operations, a lack of flexibility in production and a revival of vitality on the side of aluminum and alloys, the aircraft manufacturers eyes riveted on the profitability of their programs could be patched up with the good old world of metallurgy". However, these locks can be broken if an innovation is put in place on them. It is for this purpose that Airbus wanted to set up a datalogger in order to understand the "key" phases of a manufacturing process that can lead to a "0 fault" solution. This approach makes it possible to optimize the "process" windows and reduce, de facto, the cycles and cost of control.
The implementation of a National Instruments solution for the hardware part of the acquisition and the use of the LabVIEW development environment, allowed us to release an application that lived up to the innovation requested by Airbus.
A choice of flexible sensors for more modularity
The selected acquisition hardware (PXIe-1078 chassis with PXIe-8821RT controller) made it possible to set up a wide choice of sensors (from LVDT sensors to eddy current sensors). For reasons of compatibility with third party hardware, the operating system Windows 7-32 bits has been installed. The advantage of such an operating system lies in the implementation of a means of acquisition fully packaged in the latter without the need for a remote PC connected to the PXI by Ethernet. This choice also impacted the development time, no FPGA and real-time programming was carried out. All acquisitions were implemented through the use of DAQmx drivers.
The choice of PXI modules (see Figure 2) satisfies all the necessary acquisitions but also the addition of sensors in the future. Today, a PXIe 6363 module takes care of +/- 10V analog acquisitions, a PXIe 4340 module acquires data from LVDTs, a PXIe 4353 module takes care of thermocouple acquisition.
The PXI also has USB ports allowing the addition of third-party sensors such as a laser profilometer, an infrared camera and specific Airbus acquisition equipment on the latter.
The chassis can now accommodate new modules thanks to the slots available on it. All these choices (operating system installed, modules present, free slot, etc.) allow Airbus to have modular acquisition equipment that can evolve in the years to come.
This choice of equipment makes it possible to have a fairly large panel of sensors allowing more flexibility for the tests to be carried out. But this is not the only factor of flexibility, the software also satisfies this point via the parameterization of the possible channels. Phalanx has made this setting as intuitive as possible and that it easily allows the addition or modification of sensors. To achieve this goal, we have created an interface where the user can select the sensors they want to use in a tree structure (see Figure 3). The addition of sensors is done through a popup.
The combination of National Instruments hardware and the LabVIEW development environment helped build a flexible and modular acquisition bench.
A history of events and errors for easy maintenance
At Phalanx, we are committed to providing quality software. This commitment is constantly growing and can be seen at several levels. For this project, it was particularly revealed in terms of setting up an event history (user events or error). Indeed, the aviation industry demands strict quality. This history is updated each time a singular event occurs. The user can thus view in the "system health" page any problems encountered but also the actions carried out since the launch of the application. Each of these events are recorded in a text file.
We have also implemented several levels of events, "critical", "non-critical", "record only" and "ignore". If a "critical" event occurs, the software exits making sure to properly shut down all parallel loops operating in the code and saves the code.
If a "non-critical" event appears, it is recorded, the software is not closed however some loops stop (for example: stop recording) and it is displayed in the " system health ".
If a "record only" event occurs then it is simply recorded, no further action is taken.
In some cases events can occur but these do not cause a problem for the functionality of the program, which is why we have implemented a system where certain events can be ignored.
Conclusion and perspectives
Powerful through its modularity and performance, this tool allows Airbus to analyze the vital phases of composite manufacturing in the configuration it wishes.
The PXI technology associated with a development on LabVIEW made it possible to carry out this project.
Thanks to our advice on data processing, the Airbus Research & Technology division located in Bouguenais decided to use NI DIAdem to analyze the data recorded in TDMS format and then automatically output a report for each test performed.
