The story behind the Tescia solution

Since starting work at Brüel & Kjær in 1997, Philippe Potereau has had several roles – Sales Engineer, Application Engineer, Sales Manager and, most recently, as Business Development Manager. As a result of his experience in these roles, Philippe has developed a passion and capability to manage customers and teams through the development of complex DAQ system projects, often but not exclusively within the aerospace industry.

Philippe Potereau has been involved with Tescia from its very beginnings. We wanted to ask him a little more about the solution and its evolution.

Philippe, tell us a little more about Tescia. How did it evolve? What was the vision behind it?

Tescia is a rebuild of a large set of customized solutions that we developed in the past to fulfill dedicated customer test processes. The idea was to use all the good ideas developed, together with those customized solutions in a convenient and easy to use software package. The goal is, therefore, to offer as many users as possible the best possible efficiency for critical tests with less room for errors than in a standard environment.

Have recent technological changes enabled this product development. If so, how?

Yes of course. We couldn’t have expected this level of flexibility a couple of years ago – going from a few to thousands of channels. Standardization of network-based instrumentation systems with high accuracy time synchronization has allowed us to rethink the classical test system – moving from a centralized, single user system, to a distributed layout enabling real teamwork.

Did you engage with customers and end-users in the early phases of Tescia? If yes, how were they involved?

Yes, we engaged with several customers right from the start, because one of our goals was to replace bespoke systems with this standard, well-supported, new platform. We made presentations, and we listened to and implemented features prioritized by our customers. They also took part in beta testing our product.

I know that the origin of Tescia was for the Aerospace & Defence industry, but is that still its target today?

We knew that test processes and uses common to A&D customers could potentially be highly beneficial for other industries as well. We have, therefore, made Tescia available for any market where test efficiency and security are critical.
The first introductions we’ve made to other industries have received very good feedback, proving that we were right.

Tescia is suitable for dynamic testing of large complex machinery such as gas turbines. But is Tescia a good fit for those with simpler measurement needs?

Yes, Tescia is a suitable and good solution for those with simpler measurement needs for many reasons:

• It offers a very efficient, pragmatic and easy-to use graphical user interface
• Test preparation can be done before the test itself without dedicated instruments or software
• Tescia offers a very high level of protection of the test sample or the bench during the test itself
• Thanks to extensive real-time displays and indicators, decisions can be made during the measurement itself, allowing for direct product adjustment or tuning in one step
• Recording accuracy and security is very high
• Tescia allows you to spread the results across several computers, allowing many analyses to be monitored in real time
• Tescia offers automatic export to non-proprietary data format, ensuring a good integration with company systems/software

What makes Tescia unique in the industry?

Beyond Tescia’s innovative user interface, Tescia is the only solution that allows the test to be completely prepared without using any dedicated piece of software or hardware. Everything can be done using Microsoft® Excel running on an office computer.
It’s also the only standard software that allows several people to observe and interact with the test in real time, regardless of the size of measurement (from a couple of sensors up to thousands of channels).

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Tescia® - Repetitive Testing System

How does Tescia make you proud?

Tescia is very close to customer needs and contains a lot of field-based experience. Therefore, I’m always proud to introduce it to customers. Very often I hear feedback statements such as “what a good idea”, “this is exactly how we wanted it to work”. In short, it allows me to demonstrate that HBK has understood the customers’ challenges and needs for the future.

What are the Top 5 reasons for customers to choose Tescia?

1. Real time needs
2. Data security
3. Easy and offline test preparation
4. Teamwork
5. Openness of configuration and data files

What are your predictions for the future of repetitive testing, and will Tescia be able to grow with them?

The trend today is clearly to reduce both the cost and duration of tests. Prototypes are rare and test cells are expensive to build and to maintain. Surprisingly, that always results in making tests bigger and more complex in order to gather as much data as possible in as little time as possible.
On the other hand, repeating a test because of a failure or an error in the configuration becomes impossible. Therefore, I see Tescia as being useful to sustain those growing constraints. Everything is made to make the tests safer and more productive in minimum time.

What is Tescia

Tescia is a new system solution targeting vibration, acoustics and rotating machinery monitoring and testing. The system incorporates unique capabilities and a usercentric workflow to reduce setup time, safeguard the test items, and improve data quality and test-result validation. Aligned with Brüel & Kjær’s approach of recognizing the different roles that exist in the testing process, the system is structured to address the needs of users for each stage in the complete testing process.