Development and Design of an Online Quality Inspection System for Electric Car Seats

As the market share of electric vehicles continues to rise, consumer demands for comfort within the vehicle interior have also increased. The noise generated by electric seats during operation has become one of the primary sources of in-cabin noise. However, the offline detection methods for electric seat noise severely limit production capacity. To address this issue, this paper presents an online quality inspection system for automotive electric seats, developed using LabVIEW. This system is capable of simultaneously detecting both the noise and electrical functions of electric seats, thereby resolving problems associated with multiple detection processes and low integration levels that affect production efficiency on the assembly line. The system employs NI boards (9250 + 9182) to collect noise data, while communication between LabVIEW and the Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) allows for programmed control of the seat motor to gather motor current. Additionally, a supervisory computer was developed to process the collected data, which includes generating frequency and time-domain graphs, conducting data analysis and evaluation, and performing database queries. By being co-located with the production line, the system features a highly integrated hardware and software design that facilitates the online synchronous detection of noise performance and electrical functions in automotive electric seats, effectively streamlining the detection process and enhancing overall integration. Practical verification results indicate that the system improves the production line cycle time by 34.84%, enabling rapid and accurate identification of non-conforming items in the seat motor, with a detection time of less than 86 s, thereby meeting the quality inspection needs for automotive electric seats.