At Southern Manufacturing & Electronics, the Peak Group is featuring its range of automated test & measurement solutions along with probes, test accessories and bespoke software development capabilities.

Originally a manufacturer of ATE in-circuit test fixtures, the Peak Group now manufactures a comprehensive range of test equipment, from simple test boxes used by subcontract manufacturers to stand-alone high-specification test racks and systems used in aerospace and defence industries.

The Peak Group believes in helping customers by providing solutions that exceed their expectations. Solutions can range from a small mechanical device to fully automated test equipment solutions, including all the mechanical, electrical, software design and documentation manuals. All systems are designed and manufactured on site.

As a National Instruments Alliance Partner, Peak supplies integrated test systems based on NI industry standard platforms along with interconnection hardware from Virginia Panel Corporation (VPC), for which Peak is the UK distributor.

A key part of Peak’s business is the bespoke design of industry standard 19-inch test racks within which to integrate customer test electronics. These test racks have many features including:

  • large doors on the sides and back giving access to the equipment housed inside.
  • Internal 19-inch instrument rack with slides.
  • Mains distribution and safety circuit box.
  • Fully configured back panel.
  • Inlet and exhaust fans.
  • E-stop and door interlock set.
  • Wiring for earth star point, mains distribution, E-stop/safety/interlock circuitry.

In addition to these bespoke test systems, Peak has designed a PXI test desk and modular PXI test rack, which have proved very popular with a number of clients. The desk provides 13U of full depth instrumentation space and a further 6U of limited depth instrumentation space (rear mounted). It is ergonomically designed for a production test environment and includes:

  • Integrated VPC mass interface receiver adaptor, allowing for large numbers and variety of contact types, quickly and easily connected with one operation
  • Full e-stop safety circuitry
  • Wide body to allow for cooling fans on both sides of main chassis and at top rear of desk.
  • Internal (integrated) keyboard and mouse

The Modular PXI Test Rack is height adaptable to accept up to 42U of test instrumentation and includes all of the above benefits, has built in service panels, rack cooling and is specifically designed to fit through a standard single width door.

Other products on show at Southern Manufacturing & Electronics include a range of VTAC High Speed Data (HSD) connectors for VPC’s Mass InterConnect systems that offer data transfer rates of over 10 Gbit/s per differential pair. Rapid data transfer is ensured when the connectors are installed in VPC’s 90 Series Module, which can support up to 34 VTAC HSD Connectors with two differential pairs or four single-ended connections. VTAC’s HSD contacts are gold-plated for signal integrity and maximum reliability and are compatible with several industry standard connectors including USB 3.0, Serial ATA, HDMI, DVI and DVI-1, RJ45 Gigabit Ethernet, QSFP and Infiniband.

Also new are a range of test plugs for standard industrial interfaces produced by German manufacturer ENGMATEC GmbH. The plugs are designed to speed the production testing of electronic equipment incorporating interfaces such as USB, HDMI, RJ45 and eSATA. They have been specially developed for industrial-level automatic testing where plugs are frequently inserted and withdrawn. These automation-compatible test plugs are manufactured from abrasion-resistant plastic, with contact wires made of copper beryllium and glued into the plug body, and are suitable for operation for up to 200,000 mating cycles. Recently introduced test plugs include several types for the new USB 3.0 (SuperSpeed) interfaces as well as new versions for the eSATA (Serial ATA) interface, DisplayPort connections, and FireWire (IEEE 1394) connections.

Peak is also showing the range of Universal LightProbe Spectra USB Sensors from Optomistic Products, designed for the colour and intensity testing of LEDs. These small, highly versatile programmable sensors address many different LED test environments and requirements, including checking for a specific colour, or identifying the correct colour and intensity from a wide spectrum of colours, including white LEDs – while offering the choice of digital or analogue outputs. The latest version has a serial digital output and a sleek user-friendly USB interface incorporated into the sensor, enabling it to deliver a fast and simple serial-digital output directly to a PC.

Complementing Peaks test hardware is software from Simplicity AI: a specialist supplier of products and engineering services for test, measurement, control and automation, with a particular emphasis on developing automatic test and measurement software built around industry-standard platforms. The company’s Tequra software suite aims to reduce the cost and risk involved with test software development, deployment and maintenance. The software also provides detailed insight into manufacturing processes and product quality.

The Peak Group

Peak Production Equipment Ltd.
Peak House
Works Road
Letchworth Garden City
Herts.
SG6 1GB

Tel: +44 (0) 1462 475605
Email:peak.production@thepeakgroup.com 
www.thepeakgroup.com