Power Steering Test Stand

Automotive Manufacturer

Overview

Nexjen Systems was contracted to provide automated software, data acquisition and control solution for a stock car power steering test stand. Nexjen delivered a custom system that controls the Test Stand’s various motors and drives, performed client’s custom-defined test cases, collects data from the system’s sensors, plots data points to the user interface and logs test data to predefined reports.

Challenge

Design and implement a test system that could fully evaluate the performance of a stock car power steering gearbox and pump. The system would need to simulate driver steering inputs, vary pump speed, control fluid temperature and measure sensors at each mechanical interface.

Solution

Nexjen Systems has delivered a Power Steering Test Stand solution to both manufacturers and teams in the stock car industry. The solution combines a custom LabVIEW software application and National Instruments SCXI data acquisition and control hardware. The system provides the following capabilities.

Simulates steering input through the control of an Allen Bradley servo drive and motor.
Controls steering pump speed by controlling a Reliance Variable Frequency Drive and Motor that is coupled to the power steering pump.
Acquires measurements from important mechanical/hydraulic interfaces including steering angle, input torque, Pitman Arm position, Pitman Arm force, hydraulic pressure, hydraulic temperature, hydraulic flow rate and pump speed.
Automatically executes power steering test cases so system performance can be quickly evaluated for R&D or Quality Control purposes.
Plots vital sensor data such as Steering Torque vs Steering Angle to the user interface in real time.
Automatically stores test data and plots to a spreadsheet formatted file.