Automation of a Universal Testing Machine for Measuring Mechanical Properties in Textile Fibers

The purpose of this paper is to design a control system to perform tensile and compression tests on textile fibers and sponges in a universal testing machine. In order to design the control system, a supervisory and front panel was implemented to enter the parameters used to develop the tensile and compression tests. Control and force circuits were designed to control the motor and acquire data from the position sensors and load cell. The communication with the computer was established by an Atmega 16 microcontroller through a data acquisition device. In addition, using the LabVIEW software, a human machine interface was designed to monitor and control the parameters that intervene in the process. Finally, in order to validate the results, comparison tests were developed in a different machine with similar characteristics in order to test the reliability of the presented prototype. © 2020, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.