The eXaminer is a personal portable multi-parameter integrated measurement and analysis system that is mainly used for engineering and maintenance of advanced industrial process and production equipment.

The eXaminer comprises a data acquisition system, color graphic display, multi-channel digital multi-meter, data logger with advanced pattern search, event handling, alarms and data analysis capabilities, screen capture and printing, data export and import and a number of additional distinctive features such as physical units, extensive context sensitive help, calibration, mimics, remote network access etc.

The eXaminer was designed for the development, production, process, maintenance and equipment engineers to combine their needs in one portable tool that opens new possibilities working with contemporary production equipment.

The eXaminer helps to increase the engineers’ work quality and capacity, thereby increasing the Overall Equipment Efficiency (OEE) and capacity and reducing the Cost of Ownership (COO).

The eXaminer can be used in large variety industries such as semiconductor, pharmaceutical, electronics assembly, biotech, power generation, chemical, plastics, food, pulp, petrochemical, paper, auto and aircraft assembly, coatings, laboratories, space, etc.

Why eXaminer?

The complexity of contemporary production equipment operation and control has reached the level where the use of each traditional test instrument such as DMM, data logger, counter, oscilloscope and logic analyzer alone has become insufficient to quickly detect and analyze complex intermittent and interdependent processes.

Instead, there is a need now for the combination of several such tools to perform collectively and simultaneously in order to bring about a quick solution to complex and expensive problems.

The eXaminer is the one tool that provides the users with the ultimate integration of applications that is required to resolve current and future process and equipment engineering and maintenance issues.

The eXaminer's payback is quick, efficient and easy to justify.

The eXaminer was specially designed to combine the advantages of a multi-channel digital and analog multi-meter and counter with the storage capabilities of the data logger and the display modes of the oscilloscope.

The automatic complex events detection and alarm enables also unattended, long-time monitoring to detect random, intermittent disturbances that are very costly to production while extremely difficult and time consuming to detect otherwise.

The eXaminer allows the engineers to quickly, and often automatically, learn, understand and diagnose machine operation, thereby enabling to quickly detect and diagnose malfunctions as well as to optimize operation and maintenance of known-good machines.

One of the eXaminer’s strengths is its ability to show trends and predict problems before they become costly crashes with lost material, machine time and engineering time. In this capacity, the eXaminer is the predictive maintenance tool that has so long been awaited for.

Another outstanding advantage of the eXaminer is its ability to be left unattended for any period of time and automatically detect and alarm on rare, short-duration intermittent disturbances (with the option of being accessed remotely, via network!).

The eXaminer has the capability to serve any number of devices (machines, modules, sensors, etc), while keeping each device’s configuration, calibration and data separated from other devices. This way, the eXaminer can be moved back and forth among devices without losing information and without the need for recalibrations.

The Help utility is context sensitive in a way that it 100% follows the menus and functions that are used in each step.  The Help key, whenever pressed in the middle of any operation, will show the available functions with detailed explanations.

In addition, there are macros and shortcuts that enable to prepare strings of common operations and run them using a single key stroke (a shortcut).

A comprehensive User's Manual is provided for deeper understanding  and advanced operation.

The color graphic display enables to follow the process in graph or in tabular mode, each channel displaying the data in any selectable physical unit and scale.

If events and alarm conditions are set, every selected complex condition (normal or abnormal) can generate an event and an output that can be used in real-time or later on, in history mode.

The eXaminer can also be connected to a variety of machines, whenever a machine requires special attention such as evaluating repairs and modifications, comparing performance with stored machine baseline and qualifying a machine for production. The eXaminer is capable of saving practically unlimited number of machine configurations and data, thereby enabling to keep for unlimited period of time a machine’s history, baselines, channel configurations, production data and any other data relevant to any number of machines and processes.

Additional common use of the eXaminer is when permanently connected to a specific problematic production machine module, serving as a permanent ‘watchdog’. After learning the machine’s normal process and behavior, the eXaminer monitors the machine in real-time and alerts to any deviation from normal, while using its analytical capabilities. As all the collected data are being saved, the additional historical diagnostics features can be used to analyze the machine and the process performance, diagnose, measure capacity and efficiency, etc.. In addition, all data can be directly accessed or uploaded to a host computer via the network, making it available to other levels of users and databases.

Maintenance and engineering work that previously required the collection of various data by several instruments is now accomplished with the use of the eXaminer alone, with the capability to integrate the data and draw conclusions that were not previously possible.

The direct and indirect saving in products, material, test and calibration time, machine uptime, engineering work etc. and the increased product quality and capacity that are all accomplished by the use of the eXaminer, make the initial investment in this tool very easy to justify.

Yet, while performing as a standalone, independent tool, it can also be integrated into a wider networked system, enabling remote access or uploading the data to a host in various formats and the use of enhanced analytical capabilities.

The eXamiNet, A remote eXaminer software tool is provided that enables every user to access any eXaminer on the network for immediate remote analysis of any current or previous machine data and status, under conditions very close to real-time.

The eXamiNet enables also more advanced analytical and statistical functions to be performed remotely.

The machines’ data that are collected by the eXaminer are used by the built-in eXaminer or eXamiNet analysis software or can be integrated into an existing database for analysis and correlation with other machines, whether monitored by eXaminer or by any other system.

Examples for such tools are the HeatGuard used for furnace and oven engineering and maintenance, the TadiVac used mainly for vacuum systems, the Guardian used for certain semiconductor process and equipment, etc..

The built-in frequency/time/counts inputs add another wide range of applications when used with fast rotational or reciprocating machines, to accurately measure short-duration time dependent parameters.

For details, please contact Tadin.

There are many additional functions that are not listed and many more to come, as this tool is always evolving, while Tadin works closely with its customers to keep the eXaminer to be the best of its breed.

Click-open any screen for high-quality display

Real-time, time–domain display

This is the default display. It shows the data of all selected channels, analog, F/T/C and binary, events, alarms, etc. in real-time.

8 Binary inputs, 8 Analog parameters with bar-graphs for any scale setting in relative real-time scale.
Alarms with status and messages, binary counters, digital display of analog and F/T/C channels, rate-of-change of analog channels and more.
Can also replay history as real-time at adjustable speed.

Real-time advanced DMM

Display up to any four channels simultaneously, each displaying digital and analog display in physical units and actual voltage.

Selectable combination of readings:
minimum, maximum, moving average, total average, rate-of-change, direction of change, actual volts.
The F(frequency) T(Time) and C(Counts) are displayed as analog parameters.

Real-time Mimics display

Real-time active analog and binary objects, alarms with messages

The built-in Mimics editor enables the user to build any mimics by creating objects and attaching them to input channels.

All built mimics are saved with each machine’s data for future use.

The mimics can also be activated for Replay data, displaying it in real-time-like fashion.

Real-time Oscilloscope mode

Oscilloscope mode displays real-time data in a repetitive relative time scale.

Superb for repetitive patterns that are very common in production machines.
Sophisticated analog and binary trigger selection with adjustable delays.
Can use several modes such as single pattern display, overlay, sweep, etc.

The eXaminer can work with practically unlimited number of machines and modules. The data and configuration of each machine are saved separately and can be accessed at any time.

Main history display screen

Will display binary channels, analog channels, analog bar-graphs, events, and alarms.
Absolute selectable time scales.
Down to 0.1 Sec resolution, 36 Sec to 360 days time-spans, zooming and browsing functions, Last 10 screens.
Time search by time, event, activity map, pattern.
Select channels, set scales, units, color, etc.
All data can be exported to any external data device.

X-Y display

Display XY mode in real-time or using historical data, of any channel vs. any other one.

This feature is an excellent analytical tool for control loops and other channels’ interrelation analysis.

Cursors operations

4 line-cursors are available to perform various measurements, setups and calculations.

A cursors’ table at the right displays the values pointed-to by the cursors and the measurements and calculations results thereof.

The cursors are used to measure times (absolute and delta), levels, rate-of-change (derivative), occurrences per time, etc.
The cursors are also used to set up alarms, based on actual historical data.

Online context sensitive help

A detailed, context sensitive help is provided with over 200 help pages.
Activated any time while work goes on, at a touch of a key.
Enables help-in-help.
As all help screens are context sensitive, there is no need to search for keywords.
(This is in addition to a 250 full-size hard-copy and soft user’s manual!).

On-line calibration enables to fine-tune eXaminer’s analog channels’ calibration while data is being collected. eXaminer’s data is saved in a way that enables to improve calibration even for old data.

A unique vacuum and furnace analysis packages can be provided to calculate vacuum parameters such as leak, net pumping speed and throughput and furnace heat-load, heat capacity, trends and prediction.

2-channel, ±10V 0.01% accuracy each, programmable pattern generator.

Built-in functions enable to build waveforms and to emulate sensors. The generated waveform is displayed while being edited.

Together with the built-in calibration feature, this output constitutes a complete calibration station with full data logging of each calibration process steps and results.

The eXaminer uses calibration curves for non-linear channels.
The curves can be imported to eXaminer or they can be generated by the eXaminer calibration curves utility.

The basic curves can be generated by entering points at the keyboard or from a file, but fully automatic calibration is also available, using the Device Calibration utility.

Generated calibration tables can be exported for use by other devices.

SPC (Statistical Process Control functions) can be displayed in graph + Histogram format, Histogram and Box-Chart.

Available functions are X-chart, R-chart, S-chart, Western-electric rules, histogram, box-chart, etc.

Control limits and other SPC values such as Cpk and standard deviation are calculated and displayed.
Prediction and alarms on limits can be generated.

SPC calculations are based on pre-defined repetitive process patterns that are searched back in history, calculated and displayed as trend graphs.

In this example, a typical Box-Chart display of the rates of vacuum pump-downs of a chamber in two days (56 times) are displayed, showing the variations.

A very useful way to visually determine variations within a sample and between samples.

eXaminer contains units conversion factors to most known and used physical magnitudes.

After selecting a historical data pattern, calculation rules are set and all matching historical patterns are extracted, calculated and displayed as trend graphs (‘Values-By-Rule’).
Other synchronized parameters (channels) for the same patterns’ time-spans are calculated, added and displayed.
Can also perform mathematical functions while calculating the extracted values.

In this example, Current, Voltage and Power trends are displayed.
The Power in Watts was calculated by multiplying current by voltage.

Display overlay of all selected channels for the same process step in up to 4 fully synchronized or matched windows in normal or waterfall format.
Save one pattern as baseline reference, measure deviation from baseline.
In this example, some parameters of a plasma process in vacuum are displayed.

Any set of parameters can be defined, and X-Y or X-Y-Z graphs can be drawn for extracted and calculated values of the parameters (‘Values-By-Rule’).
The correlation factor for each pair of parameters is automatically calculated and displayed.

Unwanted (irrelevant) extracted data-points can be removed, the scales can be set, etc.

Current and Voltage of a load were measured, extracted by rule, calculated and displayed as trend for 1352 repetitive occurrences over 2 days.

The impedance of the load was calculated for all points (V/I), and displayed, synchronized with the current and the voltage.

A single keystroke will change this display to a correlation graph.

Analog Inputs:  6 differential, ±0.1V to ±300V,
Each 15-bit, optically isolated.
Analog input impedance 10Mohm
Over-voltage and ESD protection

Readings: Volts DC, Volts True-RMS, Current DC, Current True-RMS, 2W & 4W Resistivity, Frequency, Time, Counts.
All Minimum, Maximum, Average, Peak-to-Peak
Mathematical functions of all-with-all, all-with-constants.

Frequency ( F ):
0.04Hz – 10MHz, TTL to 11V

Time ( T ) interval:
1µSec. – 500Sec., R-R, F-F, TOn, TOff

Counter ( C ) totalizer with reset:
Up to 2³² (ca. 4.3E8) counts @ up to 10MHz

Binary Inputs: 6 each optically isolated,
TTL to 300 Volts AC/DC

Binary Outputs: 2, each isolated
(1 relay SPDT 0.4A 120V, 1 opto OC, 18V, 10mA)

Analog Outputs:
2 independent programmable outputs, each ±10V, 16-bit. (Theoretical resolution 0.3mV)

Sampling method: The channels are sampled at up to 40,000 samples per second each. The data are then manipulated by the front-end processor that can send to the host any combination of the max, min, average, true-RMS, P-P etc.

Reference: On-board temperature and ±2.5 volts reference sources.

The eXaminer  platform

Computer: NSC 300 MHz based, Hi-performance single board industrial computer, 64 MB RAM, watchdog chip, AWARD BIOS 256 KB Flash memory

Supply: Wide supply voltage range: 11 - 18 VDC (direct), 90 - 250 VAC (external PS, standard). Power management APM 1.1 and control module with auto restart, protected and controlled shutdown.

Network: 10/100 Mbps Ethernet.

Disks: 120 MB Solid-state disk + optional internal 10GB hard-drive + external USB drive option for data portability.

Ports:

USB 2 each USB-1 compliant.
For accessories (portable ss disk, etc.)
COM RS-232 Standard
Parallel standard (for local printer)
Audio I/O (stereo, in/out, optional)
VGA external CRT monitor
LAN 10/100 Mbps, IEEE 802.3u

Size: 18 cm x 30 cm x 6.5 cm (7" x 11.8" x 2.6")

Weight: basic: 2.9 Kg (6.5 lbs).

Display: Full color TFT-LCD, 640 x 480 pixels. Viewing area 131 x 97 mm (5.16" x 3.8"), dual-lamp backlit, with intensity control
Anti-glare and anti-scratch screen protector

Keyboard: Full 84-silicone keys, high quality gold-plated metal dome contacts with tactile feedback, including 12 function keys and 4 LED

Test leads: Full set of extendable, shielded test leads with locking plugs and probes, each 2.4 meter long (8 feet)

Case: All painted aluminum with splash-protected front
adjustable handle and mounting holes

Portability: Optional add-on battery with automatic charger operation or direct car battery.

Handle: Adjustable handle can be used as continuous angle stand, hanger, carrying handle and mounting device.
Special silicone protection frame.

Ordering information

eXaminer comes with a full set of probes, all-voltage power supply, US-type plug + European adapter, CE marked.

Accessories and options

PN 824011500 eXamiNet™ Remote access and analysis software

PN 823401000 Case for eXaminer and accessories
(strongly recommended!)

PN 823401100 Large capacity (10GB) hard disk
(Recommended!)

PN 825402000 Internal battery with charger

PN 693401000 USB portable mass storage device

PN 823501000 Permanent mounting hardware

For updated information, quotation and order, please contact  sales@tadin.co.il