Carlisle

Carlisle Brake & Friction is a worldwide company leader in designing and producing brake, clutch and transmission solutions. R&D department needs a system to measure temperature distribution on brake discs, as the use of infrared cameras isn't possible due to the test conditions. 

A system to measure temperature distribution on brake discs

The change

Carlisle Brake & Friction is a worldwide company leader in designing and producing brake, clutch and transmission solutions.

R&D department needs to perform braking tests on the discs they produce. These tests have to :

• reproduce customer practical conditions
• measure temperature distribution on the disc during the insertion phase
• cross measurements of temperature with brake bench sensors measurements (torque, pressure, velocity, etc.).

Tests are executed with dynamometric benches inside test chambers that are closed due to the presence of coolant oil, therefore the use of infra-red cameras isn’t possible. For this reason, a way to monitor disc temperature circumferentially and along the thickness is required.

Having more than one braking bench in the laboratory imply having also a lightweight, robust and portable stationing.

The solution has to be easy and intuitive. Moreover, the application has to permit a quick sensor set-up and recovery of saved configurations to optimize time.

The solution

The solution consists of the insertion of various thermocouples into small gaps allocated circumferentially and along with the thickness of the disc. The thermocouples are connected to a CompactDAQ, a National Instruments electronic equipment. CompactDAQ is a portable, rugged data acquisition platform that integrates connectivity and signal conditioning into modular I/O for directly interfacing to any sensor or signal.

The CompaqDAQ is connected to a laptop on which iDaq and its add-on 3D Sensor Mapping are installed. iDaq is a T4SM software which can automatically set up the acquisition system.

Thanks to its features and used in combination with CompactDAQ, iDaq is a great solution for technicians and researchers who want to maximize productivity without having to learn all the details about sensor configurations. 3D Sensor Mapping for iDaq is an easy and quick tool that allows to load and display a 3D CAD model and place sensors on the model itself. Real-time sensor values are directly mapped on the model so the object surface is colored according to the sensor values.

Thanks to iDaq features, 3D Sensor mapping receives data from different National Instruments acquisition boards, both local and remote. The application allows the exportation of the 3D mapped view in image format or the creation of a sequence of images acquired at a constant rate.

Benefits and results

T4SM solution satisfies all the demands of Carlisle R&D department. The main benefits are in particular:

• More efficiency of their analysis software for data collection;
• Easy and quick visualization of disc temperature through a 3D picture;
• One click measurement system setup;
• The use of a modular solution which allows expanding data collection system with new sensor types;
• A viewer for data post-processing is included in 3D Sensor Mapping;
• Effortless system shifting from a brake bench to another.