Horse saddle testing machine (Enhancement)

Kepplinger Florian
5AHMBA

Pichler Sebastian
5AHMBA

Steininger Fabian
5AHMBA

Kiesl Walter

Nösslböck Gregor

In 1999/2000, Gerald Öttl and Andrea Niedermayr built a machine for testing the polyurethane cores of horse saddles in the context of their final year project. The project was carried out in cooperation with Karl Niedersüß GmbH, a local company producing these saddles. The machine could perform three different testing methods:

• Deflection of the saddlecore-head (safe load)
• Deflection of the whole saddlecore (crosswise, at the thinnest point)
• Twisting of the rear part of the saddlecore (with fixed saddlecore-head)

A single hydraulic cylinder with an attached measuring system executed all of these testing methods. Every time the method was changed, the position and orientation of this cylinder also needed to be changed. These modifications consumed a considerable amount of time and were not ideal.

Over the years, the shape and size of these saddlecores slightly changed, which lead to problems in the testing process. The operating system, the user interface and the controlling hardware had become outdated. Many hardware components like the hydraulic hoses and the hydraulic oil had to be replaced.

The objectives of our final year project include splitting up the testing methods to three separate stations, modifying the mountings of the cores to fit the new shapes, updating the controlling hardware, writing a new program with additional features and replacing the attrited mechanical components.

The new machine can execute the three different testing methods on many different shapes of cores without any modifications. The handling of the machine is now a lot easier, safer and user-friendly than before.