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m+p international Newsletter 2/2011

23 March 2011

Welcome to our latest Newsletter about the Vibration & Environmental test world in addition to the latest information from m+p international.

The m+p international Newsletter is circulated exclusively to test engineers and managers involved in vibration test, data acquisition and signal analysis and hopes to bring you some useful technical snippets gleaned from around the world and from around the test and measurement industry. We always look forward to your inputs, send us your views to newsletter@mpihome.com.

 

In this Issue:

  1. VibControl 2.11 Revision Available
  2. Mobile 96-Channel Data Acquisition System for Turbomachinery Testing
  3. SO Analyzer and MATLAB Working in Harmony
  4. Dates for Your Diary

1. VibControl 2.11 Revision Available

Our VibControl products for advanced vibration testing from 4 to hundreds of input channels are used by many of the leading environmental test laboratories throughout the world.

Our latest VibControl Rev. 2.11 introduces a lot of new useful capabilities and enhancements to our software, a few of them are:

  • VibControl displays time data online now. You can choose between a time data display and a frequency data display in sine and random test modes.
  • In classical shock mode, you can vary the pre- and post-pulses by defining different compensation types.
  • The notching capabilities were extended by RSS vector notching and summed force notching. These functions are supported by both m+p international’s VibPilot frontend and by VXIbus hardware.
  • Customers using high-channel count systems will appreciate the new notch table import function in sine mode.
  • New axis scaling functions have been added which allow, among others, to apply the same unit to all selected graphics by a simple mouseclick.
  • The auto-load setup function is a time-saving tool to automatically load a test together with the previously stored configuration – especially helpful for test sequencing.
  • Functional testing of the transducers in multi-monitor mode.

This software update is of course free to all our VibControl customers with current maintenance contracts.

For more information, please read our 4-page VibControl Rev. 2.11 Update Note or email us at sales.na@mpihome.com.

2. Mobile 96-Channel Data Acquisition System for Turbomachinery Testing

Siemens AG is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engineering, operating in the industry, energy and healthcare sectors. At its location in Duisburg/Germany, Siemens uses m+p international’s mobile Coda data acquisition system for in-house or on-site turbomachinery testing.

The mobile Coda system supports 96 channels to measure temperatures, pressures, flows and strains. It consists of a 19” rackmount case, a VXIbus mainframe and the signal conditioning units. Operation is done via an external laptop which will be connected via
CAT-5 and fiber optics cables.

Siemens has been successfully utilizing a range of m+p international’s Coda systems for continuous data acquisition, data processing and real-time monitoring for several years at its test facilities in Duisburg. These stationary Coda data acquisition units acquire and verify not only the performance data and thermodynamic parameters but also the vibration data of turbomachines. Several turbomachines are tested in parallel for acceptance tests. A single stationary data acquisition unit acquires up to 168 process signals and 48 vibration signals.

The mobile 96-channel Coda system supports the existing stationary Coda units and significantly expands the possibilities of turbomachinery testing at Siemens.

For more information on this interesting application please read our 2-page Application Note Mobile Data Acquisition System for Turbomachinery Testing or our new 8-page Coda brochure.

3. SO Analyzer and MATLAB Working in Harmony

SO Analyzer is m+p international's renowned dynamic data acquisition, analysis and reporting system with integrated analysis across a wide range of applications from Modal to Sound Quality.

To use your own MATLAB scripts with SO Analyzer it can co-operate with MATLAB in two ways: file exchange using MAT files or via remote program control.

1. File Import/Export
For flexible data exchange with all your systems SO Analyzer supports an impressive variety of import and export file formats including UFF/UNV, WAVE, TEXT, RPC3 and MATLAB’s MAT format. The MAT file exporter has built-in intelligence to structure measurement names and header information to better suit MATLAB. The following screenshot shows an example of 4 frequency response functions being exported from an SO Analyzer to MATLAB:

This interface simplifies the procedure and ensures naming consistency. Optionally full data header data can be transferred enhancing reporting and auditing.

2. Remote Control
SO Analyzer and MATLAB can also operate interactively utilising SO Analyzer’s User Programming capability; the programming language is BASIC. A User Program can be used as a macro and assigned to a user defined menu operation for repeated operation.

For example this command in MATLAB produces a 2-dimensional array containing a hump:
x=1.5*humps(0.:0.01:3.)+10

Here is the resulting plot:

The SO Analyzer code required to create the same hump in a MATLAB workspace is as follows:
strMessage = matlab.Command ("x=1.5*humps(0.:0.01:3.)+10.;")

You can see that this simple BASIC instruction can be used to send any command to MATLAB.
The SO Analyzer instruction required to transfer the hump back to SOA is as follows:
lResult = matlab.GetWorkspace ("w", ws)

Here is the data in SO Analyzer:

These operations of transferring data to MATLAB, manipulating the data and then transferring it back can be undertaken without running MATLAB, the only proviso being that MATLAB is installed on the system.

Existing users will find two user programs in the UserPrograms directory which can be used for familiarisation and the basis for developing user specific procedures:
mm2Matlab.BAS – transfer data from SOA to MATLAB and plot it
Matlab2mm.BAS – generate data in MATLAB and transfer it to SOA

4. Dates for Your Diary

Please visit m+p international at the following events this spring:

Aerospace Testing Seminar
Interactive Technical Interchange
March 29-31, 2011
Sheraton Gateway Hotel
Los Angeles, CA
www.aero.org/conferences/ats/index.html

Noise & Vibration Conference and Exhibition
May 16-18, 2011
DeVos Place Convention Center
Grand Rapids, MI
Booth # 205
www.sae.org/events/nvc

We would be pleased to see you.
For more information please contact: sales.na@mpihome.com

Well, that brings to a close this edition of the m+p international Newsletter. If there are items of info you would like to see here or if you have useful tips for the rest of the environmental test world, then please send us your pointers and we'll include them in the next edition.

Please forward this Newsletter to your colleagues if you have found it of interest, spread the word...

With regards,
m+p international Marketing Team

www.mpihome.com

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