Testing of products and materials is a fundamental to development of products and good quality control. Many products, especially pharmacueticals, are tested for long period. Often there can be many tests all running at the same time.
Hexatec have been supplying SCAN1000 data acquisition software for test labs for many years. The software design uses the concept of multiple ‘chart’ recorders, each with a separate datalog file. This means that many tests can be run concurrently and can be started and stopped independently of each other and that data from each test is contained in its own discrete file.
SCAN1000 systems have been supplied to many different industries, including: Automotive and Aviation Component Testing, White Goods Testing, Pharmaceutical Product Stability Tests, Corrosion Testing, etc.
Manufacturers often need to keep test data for many years and this has required careful discipline to keep records of: Test Batch ID’s, Test Conditions and the Results data files.
Recent projects have combined the obvious benefits of the SCAN1000 multiple recorder systems with the Audit1000 Automated Data Collection and Information Server. This has enabled users to use automate the data logging of tests and to keep; test parameters, product ID’s, test results and all other test information in a single database.
A ‘Test Setup’ form allows the selection of the test rig, the test parameter settings and product details. Once all the settings are made and recorded control is passed to the SCAN1000 screens on the test rig as before. The test may run for a few minutes or for many months with the latest data always visible on the test station display. Live test rig data can also be viewed remotely as a web-page, so tests can be monitored from your desk PC or PDA. This is especially useful if the test lab is in a restricted of clean-lab area. Forms available during testing may be used to record observations during the test run.
On completion of a test further forms allow the entry of test completion information and will also record data and event log-file locations.
An instrument asset database is also included as part of the system. This ensures that instrumentation ID’s and associated calibration records are also recorded with the test data.
In this way all test data and supporting information is managed centrally from a single central database.
Test data is accessed from a secure web-site. This gives authorised users direct access to any test data stored in the data archive together with any notes made during testing. Data may be viewed as a preconfigured report or files may be exported for further analysis with Excel or other software.
This system gives QA mangers, researchers and, in some cases, customers, direct access to product test data. This leaves laboratory staff more time to work on product quality.
This system data management package is equally suitable for new test systems or for upgrading existing test facilities.