MTS Acumen User Manual
Page 88
MTS Acumen System Interlocks
Description
Type of Interlock
The MTS Acumen frame contains safety features built into it that are
independent of the controller and application software. This subsystem
handles the following events:
Frame Interlock
•
Emergency Stop
•
>10 mm/s velocity while in High-Power Prohibit mode
•
Various internal system failure detectors
The reaction to these conditions is to make the system safe as fast and as
reliably as possible, with no assumptions about the state of the rest of the
system. It compromises gracefulness for reliability. Along with asserting the
controller Power Interlock, it does the following:
•
Immediately asserts the actuator brake
•
Immediately cuts power to the motor
As a result of cutting power, the actuator will start to fall and then the brake
will actually stop the actuator. The MTS Acumen systems have been designed
so that when this happens, an actuator not bound to a specimen will fall a
few millimeters.
The Status Indicator window will indicate E-stop status along with any other
detected faults (for example: Safe Velocity Monitoring status).
Click the software Interlock Reset button to clear the interlock. However, if
the interlock is the result of an internal system failure, the MTS Acumen
frame must be powered down, the fault repaired, and the software restarted
to clear the interlock.
The Power Interlock is a controller interlock that will be indicated on the MP
System panel, but not in the MTS Acumen status indicators window because
it does not come from the frame.
Power Interlock
This interlock can be triggered by many different parts of the system,
including:
•
Limit and error detectors
•
External hardware that might be wired into the FlexTest controller
•
Certain error conditions within the controller, such as active feedback
saturation
•
Application actions
The reaction to these conditions is to make the system safe as fast and
reliably as possible with the knowledge that the controller is still functioning.
It does the following:
•
Immediately asserts the actuator brake
•
Delays before cutting power to the motor
As a result, the actuator may drop a little, but this is typically a fraction of a
millimeter.
88 | MTS Acumen
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Key Concepts