Performance Evaluation of Car Air Conditioners

With headquarters located in Kariya City, Aichi Prefecture, Denso Corporation is a top manufacturer and seller of automobile electronics, radiators, and parts. We had the opportunity to visit with Mr. Kawabata of the Thermal Systems Development Department who is in charge of testing and performance evaluation for the products it develops. They are using the MX100 Data Acquisition Station to acquire temperature and pressure data during performance evaluations. Mr. Kawabata: "We create simulations of the operating environment for car air conditioners and do performance evaluations of the cooling efficiency and other aspects of products we're developing. Actually, we measure air conditioner temperature with thermocouples, and output pressure and other analog signals to the MX100 PC-Based High-Speed Data Acquisition Unit." Previously they were using the DA100 Data Acquisition Unit, but knew they could benefit from the MX100's high speed, multichannel capability, and high withstanding voltage.

Mr. Kawabata: "We chose the MX because it was faster than the DA100 (measurement interval of 100 ms vs. 500 ms), measurement was easier, it came with Ethernet, and it had improved PC connectivity. The Ethernet is useful because we do actual vehicle performance tests in addition to the performance evaluations in the lab. The fact that we can use it anywhere is a major advantage." The MX100 comes standard with Ethernet, and because the product was designed with rigorous improvements in usability, it is ideal for network-based data acquisition. Mr. Kawabata: "Because there's so much time-consuming preparation involved in measurement and testing, it's a formidable task to finally make it to the actual test. But the MX100 shrinks measurement and testing time thanks to its superb functionality and easy settings. Immediately after entering settings we can start monitoring data, and dividing it up and saving it, so it's convenient for saving just the data we need." With the MX100, all troublesome settings can be easily entered using intuitive menus on the PC software.