Detailed explanation of cable tester application areas and test solutions

1 Introduction

Cables, as the "nervous system" of various types of equipment, play an important role in power operation and signal transmission. Their quality directly determines whether the equipment can operate normally. Therefore, during the production and regular maintenance of equipment, the physical characteristics and electrical performance of its internal cables must be tested. Traditional cable testing methods mainly use a combination of manual and single-item test instruments to complete various test indicators such as continuity test, insulation test, and withstand voltage test separately. There are problems such as low test efficiency, poor safety, difficulty in testing complex cable networks, and difficulty in error detection. With the continuous development of science and technology, the use of comprehensive wiring harness testing equipment integrates many functions such as continuity test, insulation test, withstand voltage test, etc., to achieve automated testing of the overall cable of the device under test.

2. Cable testing requirements

Cable testing is an essential part of the manufacturing of national defense military equipment such as aviation, aerospace, ships, weapons, and electronics, the production and maintenance of large equipment such as aircraft and high-speed railways, and the maintenance and repair of power and communication cables. According to different application scopes and needs, cable testing products are mainly developed in the direction of portable, desktop/cabinet, and distributed. For example, in field operations, portable cable testers can be used to complete the continuity test of a small number of wire harnesses; in the early stage of production and assembly of small/medium-sized equipment, all cables need to be tested for continuity and withstand voltage performance, which can be completed using desktop/cabinet cable testers; and in the production and maintenance of large and complex equipment such as high-speed railways, aircraft, and ships, a distributed, large-channel, high-precision, and automated cable testing system is required. The cable testing requirements are shown in the table.

3. Introduction to Antai Electronic Cable Tester

In recent years, with the development of my country's industrialization level, especially in the production and maintenance of large equipment (such as aircraft, high-speed rail, ships), the demand for cable testing is increasing. Antai Electronics has developed and launched a series of cable testing products, including portable, desktop, distributed, high-voltage cable testers, and cabinet cable testers, etc., and some technical indicators are better than similar foreign products.

Cable testers are widely used in defense industry, aerospace, shipbuilding, automobile assembly testing, communications and other fields. In addition to general continuity testing, insulation testing, withstand voltage testing, and component testing, they also have a self-learning function that can quickly scan complex cable networks with unknown connection relationships to determine their connection relationships. They are scalable, fast in testing speed, flexible in configuration, highly automated in testing, and stable in operation.

4. Schematic diagram of distributed test solution of Antai wiring harness tester

5. Outlook and summary of the development trend of cable testing technology

For the overall cable testing of large and complex equipment (such as large ships, aircraft, and high-speed railways), we combine advanced technologies such as fault diagnosis and health management technology, big data technology, and machine learning technology to collect the test data of cables, establish a cable fault model for self-learning to complete analysis and evaluation, and then predict the health status of the cable life cycle and usage, improve the availability of cables, reduce the risk of cable use, and provide guidance for maintenance personnel to conduct regular maintenance. In the future, the development direction of cable testing systems represented by intelligence, self-learning, and predictable faults will be formed.