Automated Testing System for Cable Assemblies Used in Automotive Industry

In this paper is presented a versatile cable assemblies testing system designed for applications in automotive industry. The implementation of the proposed equipment is based on the NI USB 6212 data acquisition board that is used together with a proprietary Lab View application which controls the operation of the whole system. The experimental stand contains a set of specialized connectors used for interconnecting the acquisition system with the ends of the tested cables. Using a predefined set of templates, the system can verify accurately and quickly the correctitude of the connections for cable assemblies having until nine wires. The templates used for tests can be configured by the user. Once the equipment is initially configured, the tests can be performed in an automated manner. The obtained results are presented on a user friendly interface contained by the LabView software application. The proposed system can be used for testing both signal and power cable assemblies, including flexible interconnection structures. The design offers the advantage of a very versatile structure that can be adapted to a multitude of cable types that are encountered in the automotive industry.