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Beverage refrigeration system testing with MW100

Industry: Food and Beverage; Vending Equipment

Product: Yokogawa MW100 Data Acquisition System

Introduction

A major soft drink manufacturer dictates strict quality control

standards to companies that manufacture vending machines,

coolers, and dispensing equipment that handle the branded

products of the company.

The company operates an engineering lab at corporate

headquarters in Atlanta where numerous environmental

rooms can simulate any climate conditi on where a vending

machine or cooler may operat e. Testing of all types of

vending machine and dispensing equipment is conducted in

these environmental rooms.

Application

An environmental room cons ists of four or five test stations.

Each station includes a relay control for starting/stopping the

unit under test, an AC power meter to measure load, and a

patch panel of 40-50 type T thermocouples. Room

temperature and humidit y are also measured. All

thermocouples and control ca bling leave the room and are

bundled into the adjacent lab area where they are wired to a

National Instruments SCXI data acquisitio n system.

LabVIEW software handles monitoring and multiple mode

logging to the PC for each test cycle.

A test cycle consists of loading the unit under test with

product cans or bottles filled with glycol and a thermocouple

probe. The system is then “soaked” for a time peri od to

reach the ambient temperature of the room. The room can

simulate any temperatur e/humidity combination- from Miami

Beach in the summer, to a Montana winter. T he test begins

by switching on the cooling system. Temperature data from

all product containers as well as the electrical loa d of the

cooling system is monitored for the test durat ion. The

completed test data file is converted to Excel format for

analysis and formatting into a corporate report. The objective

of the test is to ensure that the unit under test has the

capacity to draw down the product temperatur e within a

prescribed time period, and cool the product uniformly and

adequately over the expected range of environmental

conditions.

The customer began looki ng for a replacement data

acquisition system, with the primary objective of replacing

LabVIEW with an off-the-shelf software solution that

provided equal or better functionality but without the need for

custom integration work. The original LabVIEW application

never fully met expectations because of problems with the

integration firm that designed the application.

A new hardware platform that is Ethernet based with higher

measurement quality, new convenience functions and

backup data logging were also new system criteria.

The new system must be a functional replacement for the

original system. Of most importance, the software must allow

the operator to start and stop a test for each station

independently. The system must also activate a loa d relay

that energizes the cooling system under test at the beginning

of the test cycle.

Solution

The local Yokogawa Test and Measurement sales rep that

has an established re lationship with the customer was

contacted to discuss the new project.

A meeting was scheduled and the project details were

defined. The MW100 was recommended as the data

acquisition platform, including the DAQWORX software suite

with AddMulti, and the PR300 power meter.

Four MW100 systems and four PR300s were purchased for

the first environmental room. Approximately 220

thermocouple inputs from the four stations are wired to the

four systems. One MW100 includes a 10-ch annel alarm

relay output module and is as signed to switch the load relays

for the units under test at each station. This MW100 is also

assigned the task of reading the PR300 power parameters

via the MODBUS client function.

The customer inquired about a “turn ke y” installation that

included assembly of the MW100 components to a panel

and mounting the panel to the wall in the lab. In addition, all

of the signal wiring had to be transferred from the old NI

system to the MW100 and then dressed and labeled. The

sales rep was able to quote this work through a local

Yokogawa systems integration firm and this was included

with the customer’s order.

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Beverage refrigeration system testing with MW100

The completed panel was delivered and installed over the Christmas holiday, in time to commence start up when the customer

returned to work after New Year’s.

All four MW100s and PR300 power

meters are placed on the corporate

network along with the lab PC . The

customer uses a web browser to

configure each MW100 and for manua l

start/stop control of each test station’s

cooling system under test. DAQWORX

GateMXMW, DAQLOGGER, and

AddMulti software components hand le

the data communication, trending an d

display, and multi-interval re porting

functions, respectively. This all-

Yokogawa software package provides a

sub- $1k solution that required no

integration services.

The system benefits include:

• On-board data storage that can

back up test data in the event of

PC or network failure.

• Ability to interface to the PR300

Power Meter via MODBUS TCP.

• “Out of the box” low cost software

that provided all of the needed

data display and multi-interval

logging functions.

• File conversion to Excel for

reporting

• Turn-key installation by local

Yokogawa system integrator.

Additional

References:

For detailed product information and

specifications, see the following

documents:

• MW100 Bulletin; 04M10B01-01E

• MW100 General Specifications; GS04M10B01-01E