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Leak Test Station
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Peak Automotive Ltd
Peak Automotive is a specialist supplier of high precision machined components to several major car and commercial vehicle manufacturers. In particular, the Company has recently begun production of a ‘4-way joint’ for use in the hydraulic braking system of a well-known make of passenger car.
A ‘4-way joint’ consists of a pair of hydraulic ‘elbows’ machined into a rectangular block of aluminium. Blocks are loaded, in pairs, into a small CNC machining centre where various external features are milled or drilled and where the two internal elbows are drilled, counter-bored and tapped. Owing to the safety-critical nature of the application, each component is then tested for leak-tightness - using test equipment supplied by Regent Design Ltd.
The Leak Test Station consists of two parts - the leak test instrument itself, and a test fixture. The former, a proprietary unit having a fully traceable calibration, also provides the timed switching signals for sequencing and controlling the operation of the fixture.
The fixture comprises an arrangement of miniature pneumatic actuators whose purpose is to apply neoprene seals to the four inlet/outlet ports of the two elbows. Under the control of the leak test instrument, seals are applied in sequence - either singly or in pairs - and each elbow is individually tested; first for a blockage, then for a leak. The dimensions and profiles of the nest into which the component is placed during the test are such as to ensure that only components with correctly machined external features can initiate a test cycle. The fixture thus embodies a poka yoke test in addition to its primary function.
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