From:http://www.apparatus-instrument.com/
"If a business person's phone stops working it is an inconvenience but if a soldier's radio quits working, it could leave him in grave danger," continues Barfuss. "If a cellular base station breaks it may cost the provider thousands of dollars. If a satellite payload breaks it could cost millions."
With military and civilian lives and billions of taxpayer's dollars potentially on the line, test and measurement is at the forefront in the minds of systems designers, systems integrators, and end users in the military and aerospace market. Makers of test and measurement solutions serving the mil-aero community continue to advance the technology, keeping pace with electronics technologies and the standards and deadlines to which they must adhere.
Time is of the essence
Much has been written about warfighters in the field waiting for armaments. In an effort to deliver ample electronics systems and supplies rapidly that are safe and reliable, industry organizations are partnering to speed and perfect test and measurement processes and procedures -- and they are accomplishing these goals through automation.
Engineers at Agilent Technologies, Raytheon Co. in Waltham, Mass., and the U.S. Navy have teamed to develop an automated test system for Raytheon's system missile business. The joint efforts of these three organizations culminated in the Presidio Automated Test Line, considered a breakthrough in testing automation and used in the production of Raytheon's Standard Missile 2.
"The system used Agilent's measurement technology and automation expertise to greatly improve the efficiency of test--cutting the cycle time from 21 days down to seven hours," Barfuss explains.
The SM-2 Presidio replaces 17 test positions and 27 environmental conditioning systems with one automated installation, enabling the achievement of impressive time-savings. Presidio also takes advantage of commercial technologies, such as robotic material handling, multi-plane vibration, universal solid-state test interfaces, and test executive software.
"The Navy benefits significantly from the greater test efficiency that Presidio provides," Scott Reiter, the Navy's SM-2 project director, observes. "This gets missiles in the hands of our sailors that much faster. It is another example of the great partnership that exists between the Navy and Raytheon on SM-2."
The novel system has changed the testing process not only for Standard Missile, but also, ultimately, for Raytheon's entire Missile Systems business, says a representative. "Presidio sets the stage for automation across our business," says Rick Nelson, vice president of operations for Raytheon Missile Systems. "It marks a vital first step in modernizing and streamlining all of our operations processes."