Lab Work

By Dick Hughes  

FEBRUARY 10, 2011 1:46 p.m. (0)

When Sealevel Systems needed to run critical tests on a computer docking station for the military, the company turned to a lab at Clemson University’s International Center for Automotive Research.

The Liberty company was in a bind.  It had to pass inspection by Jan. 20 to meet a production schedule, but the Upstate’s worst snow and ice storm in years was in the way.  CU-ICAR was closed.

“They opened for us and said come and go as you please,” said Ben O’Hanlan, chief operating officer.  “Not only did ICAR come to our rescue, they came to our rescue when nobody was getting out of the house.”

Sealevel needed to test its docking station for emission of electromagnetic interference (EMI) against a rigidly enforced military standard that is five times more stringent than what would be needed for a commercial laptop, said Antonio Martin, Sealevel’s director of research and development.

EMI is the noise emitted by power supplies that at high levels can disrupt other electronics and can be detected.

“This is a completely exaggerated worst case, but you do not want noise from our computers to launch the missiles that are parked right next to it because the missiles get some sort of bad signal coming from our machine,” O’Hanlan said.

“Or if you are sitting with our device in a foxhole, you don’t want the enemy that has sensitive listening equipment to detect the noise that a power supply might make when it is active.”

Using ICAR’s EMI testing chamber that scans an entire range of frequencies, Sealevel confirmed that its docking station exceeded Army standards.

With second-opinion testing from two other labs and the military’s own positive testing results, Sealevel began production of 200 docking stations a week under a contract for 42,000 pieces over five years.

Martin couldn’t be more pleased with the experience at ICAR. “The previous facility we were working with was out in Colorado,” he said. “While it is a nice lab, it was built like in the 1940s and is filthy.”

By contrast, he said, “ICAR is immaculate. It is so modern. Their lab is top notch.  We were comfortable doing the scans there.”

Like all specialized labs at ICAR, the one used by Sealevel, a Lindgren Electromagnetic Compatibility Chamber, was designed to serve the automotive industry, automotive research and student instruction, but its functionality is applicable to other industries.

That broader use was purposeful, said R. Larry Dooley, associate dean for research and graduate studies in Clemson’s College of Engineering and Science.

“The EMI lab is a good example,” he said. “We certainly are interested in the electromagnetic interference in making automobiles and transportation systems, but it is a very nice testing chamber that will accommodate any other type industry.”

An example of mutually beneficial uses, he said, are the industrial robots students are evaluating and using which are put to use by manufacturers who bring in their specialized equipment on a consignment-type basis.

“We purposely selected equipment that industrial partners like BMW and Michelin could utilize for some of their challenging manufacturing questions without having to go out and invest in the hardware or rent equipment somewhat where.”

Dooley said billing rates for industrial and government users were set “that are not designed necessarily to make a profit but to recover our costs and give us some operational funds.”

Under federal regulations, ICAR cannot charge the government “any more than we charge an industrial sponsor.”

Revenue under contracts with industrial and government customers “goes into an account that we use to keep the equipment current and maintain service contracts and things like that,” Dooley said. “We have to recoup our costs and try to make the labs pay for themselves.  It is not to offset costs in other areas; it is just to cover the cost of those operating expenses.”

When ICAR opened in 2006, he said, the College of Engineering and Science had revenue of $600,000 from industrial and federal contracts “associated with automotive-related projects. Now, when we just closed the books on fiscal 2010, we were close to $4 million.”

Because the equipment is state of the art and new, he said, “maintenance costs are minimal right now,” and so far Clemson is “able to meet our expenses fine.”

At the same time, Dooley said, Clemson is trying to get ahead of the curve that will come when the labs need to be “on an upgrade cycle and eventually have to replace things.”