Richard Montague 1)and John Watton 2)
1) Marine Current Turbines Ltd, The Court, The Green, Stoke Gifford, Bristol BS34 8PD, UK
2)Cardiff University, Division of Mechanical Engineering, Queen's Buildings/The Parade, Cardiff CF 24 3TA, Wales, UK
richard.montague@marineturbines.com ,
WattonJ@cardiff.ac.uk
The steady state and dynamic performance of a miniature pneumatic valve is studied and an automated, computer-controlled test procedure is developed to determine unwanted leakage. A novel testing approach is developed using the valve dynamic leakage characteristic, and a substantially reduced test time has been achieved. A National Instruments LabVIEW hardware approach is utilised for both data acquisition and real time control and the test procedure has been put into commercial use.
Keywords: miniature pneumatic valve, automated testsystem, valve characteristics