High Speed Super Stable Ferry
 Category:  Research, Scale Model Testing

Swath International, experts in Small-Waterplane-Area Twin Hull ship technology, used LABTECH  to collect  orientation and acceleration data from a radio-controlled 1/25 scaled model of their Super Regency high-speed ferry.  The model was tested at the U.S. Navy's David Taylor Model Basin in Bethesda, MD. where wave conditions  could be created to simulate open water crossings, and the speed of the model could be controlled as well.  The Super Regency is now in service, carrying 850 passengers and 250 cars smoothly and safely across the sea.

 Read the story of this project on the Swath web site: http://www.swath.com/modeltst.htm

Seat Belt Testing
Category:  Manufacturing, Quality Control

Thanks to LABTECH CONTROL we can all feel safer when we buckle up.  A seat belt assembly firm  in New England uses LABTECH CONTROL to perform a vital quality control check on the seat belts, without adding additional steps to the assembly process.  At the end of the assembly line, the completed seat belt is fastened and  LABTECH CONTROL tests its integrity by collecting 100 data points at a 1 k-Hz rate, and comparing them to the well-defined force curve of an acceptable seat belt.  If CONTROL detects even a single point outside the acceptable  range, the belt is rejected; CONTROL plays an audio alert and displays updated reject rates.

For more information, see our page with the whole story.
 

Cable Testing
Category:  Quality Assurance, Compliance Testing

WESCON PRODUCTS, a mechanical control cable manufacturer, uses LABTECH software to perform rigorous brake cable testing.  Over a 20-day test period, LABTECH software pulls on the cables with 0 to 280 pounds of force and assaults the cables with water, dirt, and salt..  Passing the  LABTECH torture test assures WESCON that its brake cables comply with testing specifications.

For more information, see our page with the whole story.
 

Mixer - Remote Operation
Category:  Education, Remote Control

At Northeastern University, Dr. Ronald J. Willey has been using LABTECH software to move the Chemical Engineering department into a virtual world, where laboratory experiments  can be operated remotely by means of LABTECH software. 

Dr. Willey found that by using Version 12 of LABTECH software, it was especially easy to set up remote operation of an industrial-size mixer, from various locations on the university network.  We even operated the mixer from LABTECH headquarters in Andover, MA, 24 miles from the university lab.

For more information, see our page with the whole story.
 

Magnetic Levitation Ride Smoothness Study
Category: Research, Advanced Transportation Systems

Magnetic levitation (Maglev) high-speed-rail service will become a reality in the United States, according to the United States Department of Transportation.  The DOT's Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) recently funded a five-year multimillion-dollar contract to provide technical and  support services for future deployment of the first Maglev high-speed-rail service in the United States.

Before pushing forward plans for Maglev, the DOT sponsored an interesting study to determine how passengers would tolerate  the ride quality of a Maglev vehicle.  In other words, would passengers experience motion sickness?

An airplane flight in smooth air could be used to study Maglev ride tolerance.  Each test flight was pilot controlled to simulate a high-speed ride over 277 km (172 miles) of the New York State Thruway.  One on-board computer provided the pilot with a display showing how closely the actual flight path was matching the Thruway  simulation.  A second on-board computer, running LABTECH, collected readings from accelerometers and a roll-rate gyro, at intervals of 0.1 seconds.  After performing smoothing of the roll-rate data, NOTEBOOK sent  timestamped data via serial link to the pilot's display.  The accurate and immediate feedback provided by LABTECH allowed the pilots to maintain good correspondence between desired and actual bank angles.  The study concluded that Maglev transportation is well tolerated by passengers.

View a PDF with full details of the study.

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