UltraLife Batteries are among the pioneers of the lithium battery industry. Their primary manufacturing facilities are in Newark and New York. They also maintain production in England. They are known primarily for the development and distribution of advanced battery technology. Ultralife targets several industrial and consumer markets. The company special feature is the line of disposable lithium batteries. In fact, Ultralife is the first battery manufacturer in the world to achieve solid polymer rechargeable batteries. Ultralifes objective is to become the leading provider of advanced lithium batteries for applications requiring battery sources.
Ultralife uses WinWedge Pro software to collect data from an Optical Gage called a Smart Scope. The Smart Scope is located in the Incoming Inspections area. Several different routines are written for the scope using a Windows based program called “Measure Mind”. Measure Mind controls the scope and what data is collected from it.
The data is sent from the scope directly to a second Windows PC that is running the WinWedge Pro software. WinWedge Pro collects the incoming serial data from the optical gage, parses, filters and formats it as needed and instantly transfers it to a Windows Statistical Process Control (SPC) System. The data collected from the Smart Scope optical gage is used to help determine if the raw materials coming into the plant are within the specifications required by Ultralife as part of its strict quality control system.
Overview of the system
- SmartScope optical gage monitors raw materials coming into the plant.
- The data from the optical gage is sent to a Windows PC via an RS232 connection
- WinWedge Pro inputs the gage data real-time into a statistical (SPC) software package.
- The data is monitored in the SPC software for real-time quality control purposes.