Within its technological expertise, bcb has the experience of having developed and implemented a test station for heated windshields, in which infrared thermography is used as the main validation to determine if the glass component in question is perfectly functional or if it is not. Indicate what the defect is and where it is located. The bcbTestBench is the main base of this testing system.
The main feature offered by thermography is to measure the heat generated by the entire windshield, which comes from a layer of filaments that it has, which are as thin as a hair. When energized, the heat they generate is such that it melts the ice or snow that could adhere to the glass, allowing the driver to see. For an operator, detecting a faulty filament is quite difficult as it takes a long time to examine each individual filament under visual magnification to see if any are incomplete or damaged. On the other hand, for the thermographic camera, only 4 seconds are enough to be able to clearly see if all the filaments heat up or if one or several remain cold, thus evidencing their failure.
In order to be able to examine a large number of windshields with agility, automation of the test is essential, only thus assigning to the operator the task of placing the glass on the test cabin, connecting its terminals, pressing the test start button, waiting for finish and remove the windshield to repeat the process.
In addition to the integration of the thermographic camera, bcb incorporates for this test a programmable source and a panel for switching the terminals (whose logic is integrated in the software of the test cabin). In this way, it is possible for the bcbTestBench to supply the voltage and current required to operate each circuit of the windshield while it is examined by the FLIR Teledyne camera that the cabin has.
“It was a very interesting project, considering that it was based on a customer requirement that we made to measure. They were very involved, giving their point of view and approval to each of the features of the cabin. They came to our facility to functional test the finished booth and we attended to minor changes that were very important to them. In the end, both parties were very satisfied with the result and also happy to contribute to a very important quality requirement for the automotive entity” were the words of Jairo García, Operations Director of bcb México.
