Cessna tests aircraft with 24-bit system

Cessna Aircraft Co. tests the frames, wings, and subassemblies on its light aircraft and business jets with a new 24-bit, 1,280-channel data-acquisition system that includes hardware and software. The company conducts both static and dynamic testing using an MGCPlus(R) signal conditioning and data-acquisition system from HBM, Inc. (Marlborough, MA).

"A key element is providing a total hardware and software solution that is scaleable," says Stephen Webb, an HBM systems engineer. He adds that the company's modular approach allows the reconfiguration of the entire system. Engineers break out small sections of the full system as remote or stand-alone units using the same core software that the full system uses.

The system's throughput is in excess of one million samples per second. Engineers work with data at their own desks using an integrated client-server software package.

Webb indicates that the 24-bit system samples data in a simultaneous manner, which eliminates the problem of time-skewed data. "Simultaneous data sampling provides the engineer with a powerful analytic edge when assessing the effect of short-term events over hundreds or thousands of sensors."

HBM supports the data-acquisition channels with its catman(R) MDS software that facilitates MGCPlus(R) system configuration, automates testing sequences, and provides test tractability by logging the test set-up information for each channel with the data. "When a specimen that could be worth millions of dollars is being tested, you need every bit of data possible to understand the high-speed events that are taking place," says Webb.

For more information about data-acquisition systems from HBM: Enter 538