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 wasn't the test logic — it was the 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. EtherCAT communication to the actuator controller? Built in. High-speed data acquisition with proper signal conditioning? Handled by swappable C Series modules in the same chassis. Supervisory monitoring of external subsystem sensors? The cRIO's FPGA and real-time processor handled it without breaking a sweat.
Instead of a rack full of adapters and a PC buried under driver compatibility issues, we delivered a compact, self-contained test station with a LabVIEW application running on the cRIO's real-time OS. The architecture was clean: the FPGA layer handled time-critical I/O and EtherCAT communication, the real-time layer managed test sequencing and data logging, and 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. But the most interesting part of this project wasn't just collecting better data — it was what we could do with it.
With higher-fidelity 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 kind of insight doesn't just pass-or-fail a part; it gives the engineering team a window into product behavior that feeds back into design improvements. It's 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. That's possible when you choose the right platform up front (no time wasted wrestling with third-party adapters), when you have deep experience with LabVIEW and NI hardware (our team has 26+ years and a Certified LabVIEW Architect leading the design), and when you work with a small, focused integrator that doesn't bury you in project management overhead.
After the initial station proved out, multiple test stations were deployed to manufacturing facilities around the world. And because our team is small and accessible, we were available for late-night troubleshooting calls across time zones when production lines needed support — no ticket queues, no callbacks, just the engineer who built your system picking 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.
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