Images for the CU 400 g-ton Centrifuge

Centrifuge as installed (1987)

Payload platform view

Payload platform view with people for scale

Control equipment cabinet. Original system used three cabinets total, we removed one that housed an industrial 286 computer that did the floating point math for the PLC.

Inside the right cabinet. RT PXI controller mounted top right. We kept some of the orginal PLC isolators and relays. The PLC that we removed filled the entire volume of this cabinet.

Centrifuge control program, main page

Control program, balance system page, used to monitor individual transducer values read by centrifuge mounted fieldpoint system

Control program, vibration monitoring page. Accelerometer mounted on key mechanical pieces are sampled by a pxi-4472b

Operational data from a typical series of test runs logged by Datalogging module

SCXI system mounted on centrifuge arm. PXI box is behind it. The SCXI system is wired out to the tip of the arm using CAT-5 ethernet cable and patch panels. The CAT-5 cable is secured into the aluminum channels using rubber strain reliefs and hose clamps.

A view of the box containing the fieldpoint equipment (for the control system) with the daq pxi system behind it.

Another view of the arm mounted equipment. The bundle of wires and driveshaft going through the ceiling is the centrifuge's center of rotation. They attach to the electrical and hydraulic slipring system.