4 mo
Kickoff to global deployment
1
Consolidated cRIO platform
26+
Years of NI hardware expertise
Global
Multi-site station deployment
The Challenge: Legacy Systems, New Products
A leading aerospace manufacturer in the Buffalo, NY area had a problem that's all too common in mature manufacturing environments: their existing actuator test system was purpose-built to support legacy products, and it worked fine — for those products. But when the engineering team introduced a new product line with additional test requirements, the legacy system simply couldn't keep up. New measurements were needed, new communication protocols had to be supported, and the existing architecture wasn't designed to flex.
The Real Headache: Communications
The new design required the test system to talk to the actuator controller over EtherCAT while simultaneously acquiring high-speed sensor data and supervising other subsystem sensors. Without the right hardware platform, this would have meant cobbling together a complex PC-based setup with third-party communication adapters — an integration nightmare with a larger footprint, more points of failure, and a longer development timeline than anyone wanted.
The Solution: NI CompactRIO with EtherCAT
This is exactly the kind of problem that NI CompactRIO was designed to solve. The cRIO gave us a single, rugged platform that could handle multiple connectivity requirements without bolting on third-party hardware.
What the cRIO Consolidated into One Box
Instead of a rack full of adapters and a PC buried under driver compatibility issues, the cRIO handled all of it:
EtherCAT Communication
Direct protocol support — no adapter required
High-Speed Data Acquisition
C Series modules in the same chassis — no USB latency
Signal Conditioning
Swappable C Series modules — proper conditioning for each sensor
Supervisory Control
FPGA + RT processor — deterministic sequencing and logging
A compact, self-contained test station with a LabVIEW application running on the cRIO's real-time OS. The FPGA layer handled time-critical I/O and EtherCAT communication. The real-time layer managed test sequencing and data logging. A host UI gave operators full visibility into the test process.
Better Measurements, Better Insight
While throughput wasn't the primary concern on this project, measurement quality was — and that's where the results really showed. The new system's signal conditioning and high-speed acquisition capabilities delivered significantly cleaner data than the legacy setup.
Anomaly Detection from Higher-Fidelity Data
With cleaner measurements in hand, we built data analysis routines that could detect anomalies in the actuator's performance signature — subtle patterns that would have been invisible in the noisier legacy data. This doesn't just pass-or-fail a part; it gives the engineering team a window into product behavior that feeds back into design improvements. The difference between knowing a part failed and understanding *why* it was trending toward failure.
Fast-Track Delivery: Kickoff to Global Deployment in 4 Months
This was a fast-track project — 4 months from kickoff to first deployment.
- 1
Right platform selection up front — no time wasted wrestling with third-party adapters
- 2
Deep NI hardware experience — Certified LabVIEW Architect leading the design, 26+ years in the field
- 3
Small, focused team — no project management overhead, no ticket queues
- 4
First station validated in-house before shipping to customer facility
- 5
Global deployment — multiple stations shipped to manufacturing sites worldwide
Because our team is small and accessible, we were available for late-night troubleshooting calls across time zones when production lines needed support — the engineer who built your system picks up the phone.
Why NI CompactRIO Was the Right Call
The alternative — a PC-based solution with third-party EtherCAT adapters, separate DAQ hardware, and external signal conditioning — would have meant a bigger footprint, more integration risk, and a longer timeline. The cRIO consolidated everything into a single platform: bus communications, high-speed acquisition, signal conditioning, and supervisory control. For this Buffalo manufacturer, that meant a faster path to production and a system that's still running reliably years later.
Need a Similar System?
If you're a manufacturer in Buffalo, Western New York, or anywhere in the Northeast dealing with legacy test systems that can't support new products — we've been there. Korpra specializes in exactly this kind of modernization: taking a manual or outdated test process and building a turn-key automated solution with LabVIEW and NI hardware. Call us at 585-678-1649 or request a quote to talk about your project.
Interested in a similar system?
Let's talk about your requirements.