Aerospace test bench
without a PLC

The context

An aerospace manufacturer needed to qualify a mechanism of its own design, intended for a launcher. The mechanism belongs to the client and remains confidential: we show none of it.

The technical constraint was measurement. A test of this kind involves a large number of simultaneous channels and short-lived phenomena, where acquisition that is too slow or out of sync loses the information exactly when it matters. The second constraint was the calendar: the bench had to be operational within weeks.

What we did

• Full electrical design of the installation, and selection of a Gantner acquisition chain — modular hardware able to sample many channels quickly without losing synchronism. We are an integration partner of this manufacturer, which is why it calls on us to deliver its solutions turnkey.
• Cabinet built in our workshop: distribution and protection, 24 V supply, controller and measurement modules on separate rails, marked terminal blocks, internal lighting and permanent-voltage warning.
• Manufacture of the supporting workbench on which the cabinet sits, sized for the workstation and the access constraints of the bench.
• Development of the PC control software, driving the motors of the mechanical unit directly — with no PLC in between.
• Transparent communication with the Gantner rack: measurements are collected, time-stamped and tied to the current test step without operator intervention.
• Recipe system so the client's team writes its own test sequences, saves them and replays them, without modifying the software.
• Commissioning and handover to the client's teams.

The result

The bench was delivered and commissioned six weeks after the order. That lead time is not a one-off feat: it rests on a software base we developed for test benches built around Gantner hardware. The work then focuses on what is specific to the client — their motors, their sensors, their sequences — rather than on rewriting a foundation.

The client received a complete workstation rather than a cabinet: the bench, the electrical installation, the acquisition chain and the control software. One supplier for the whole thing, which matters all the more on a short deadline.

Having no PLC simplifies everything. All the logic sits in one place: one application to maintain, one environment to master, and measurements arriving directly where they are used.

The acquisition cabinet

The mechanism under test cannot be shown. The cabinet can — and it says a good deal about the project. It is pictured here mid-assembly, before finishing.

Why six weeks is possible

We developed a software base dedicated to test benches built on Gantner acquisition hardware. It is reusable from one project to the next, which changes the economics of a test bench.

• Acquisition ready: communication with the rack is already written and proven. Channels are declared, measurements arrive time-stamped and synchronised.
• Recipes built in: the sequencing engine is part of the base. Your teams compose their own tests without coming back to us every time the protocol changes.
• Custom work where it counts: development focuses on your actuators, your sensors and your sequences, not on rewriting a foundation that already exists.
• One single application: without a PLC, logic is not split across environments. One application to master, to maintain and to take over.