Plastic pipes used to transport gas and water have to be tested to stringent standards. One test involves pressurising samples of the pipe for long periods at elevated temperatures, during which it should not fail. These samples have been prepared by cutting longitudinal, stress-concentration notches in their outer surfaces. A large UK manufacturer of such pipe has a large test facility involving several tanks of hot water into which a large number of sample lengths of pipe are immersed. The samples are pressurised by air and tests can extend for several months. This control is performed by a number of computer systems, each controlling a rack of test samples. The pressure of each sample has to be individually controlled depending on the type and size of pipe. Quercus Computer Systems designed supervisory software, to run on a remote desktop PC, which provides full data recording, report preparation and archiving for the whole test facility. At the start of a test the manufacturing details are entered into the system, which selects the correct test routine from a large data base of specifications. A test rack is allocated and instructions sent down a serial link to the computers controlling the tanks. As well as straight lengths of pipe, various elbow and joint fittings and assemblies are also tested. These all have individual test specifications. The computer interrogates the rack computers at regular intervals to extract the current test conditions, which have to be recorded for certification purposes. At the end of the test period the data is summarised into a test report and archived. Facilities are included for producing a variety of reports and for entering new test specifications for existing or new products.

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