In the past, Bucyrus Interational engineers were limited to burst histories, short data samples located near load peaks, because their data acquisition systems did not have sufficient data storage capacity for full time histories. The extra testing data contained in the time histories provides design engineers with the information they need to validate the performance of their equipment under a much wider range of conditions. The higher volume of data provides additional insight into the design that makes it possible to identify and fix problems before customers find them. Bucyrus International, Inc. designs, manufactures and markets excavation machinery used for surface mining and supplies replacement parts and services.
Equipment produced by the firm includes electric mining shovels and walking draglines.
In the past, engineers used an FM tape recorder to collect data during field tests. This instrument was large and heavy which made it difficult to transport to the test site and it took of a considerable amount of room in the cabin which reduced the operator s freedom of motion. Another problem was that it typically took several days to configure the device for field testing. The device was only capable of storing 8 channels of data. There was no way to determine the validity of the data that was collected until the crew returned to the lab and uploaded the data in the computer.