Grant Squirrel Ensures Safety and Robustness of Product Line
CAS DataLoggers provided a comprehensive data logging solution for a major automobile manufacturer’s vehicle performance testing. Engineers needed highly accurate, reliable equipment to gather detailed records of a car’s data throughout speed validation tests. The devices had to measure multiple parameters and be portable for quick placement and retrieval from hundreds of test cars.
Installation
Plant management installed 20 Grant Squirrel SQ 16 Data Loggers in an equal number of their test cars. Subsequently, test engineers put their development cars through testing on the track at high speeds as part of their endurance testing program, equipped with temperature and pressure sensors feeding data into the SQ2040 data loggers. The loggers were set to record the data at preset regular intervals throughout the tests, including road conditions, engine temperature, and pressure data, all recorded into each Squirrel’s memory. This data gave engineers vital information on performance concerning a whole host of vehicle components.
Usage
Grant SQ16 data loggers have 32 universal analog inputs for voltage, current, or resistance and 8 inputs for digital pulse and event. They support a wide range of analog inputs, including thermistors, thermocouples, RTD temperature sensors, voltage, current, and resistance. Twin processors and multiple 24-bit ADC converters enable precision measurements with a high basic accuracy of 0.05%. 4 alarm outputs provide early warning capabilities for out-of-spec parameters. The Squirrel data loggers are compact and lightweight for easy transport and vehicle performance testing. They have 128 MB of internal memory and a removable SD card for multi-channel testing. Engineers easily download and analyze data for safer automobiles.
Benefits
The automobile manufacturer saw significant benefits after implementing the Grant Squirrel SQ16 data loggers in their quality assurance program. The loggers could measure a wide variety of parameters, had many universal channels, offered multiple communication options, and were affordable. They were also portable and easily configurable, giving the project a head start.
A quality performance engineer commented: “We chose the Squirrels because they’re about the size of a small notebook but extremely sophisticated and very easy to use. Downloading the information from the loggers to our PCs enables us to analyze the data quickly and clearly. We’ve already tested hundreds of cars and the Squirrels have proven to be invaluable tools for improving the reliability of our vehicles. With these devices, you don’t need to be a computer scientist to collect, download, and analyze your data.”
For more information on Grant Squirrel Data Loggers, vehicle performance testing or to find the ideal solution for your application-specific needs, contact a CAS DataLogger Application Specialist at (800) 956-4437 or request more information.