Test Dynamics was appointed to provide continued representation of the National Instruments brand locally, when National Instruments took a decision to pursue a distribution model in Southern Africa.

According to Stephen Plumb, sales manager at Test Dynamics, this distribution model has been successfully rolled out in multiple territories around the globe as National Instruments seeks to divest from sales expenses and to channel more resources into R&D.

Plumb explains that the renewed focus on military/aerospace, 5G and academic research, puts Test Dynamics in a strong positon to extend the adoption of the technological advantage that the National Instruments software-defined platforms offer in these areas.

“With National Instruments’ LabVIEW having just passed the 33 year mark, no other company has the depth of experience in bringing software-defined instrumentation to market. The synthesis of high quality digitising hardware, together with software, has been the essence of the National Instruments approach since its inception and more recently this philosophy has been driven even closer to the hardware with open architecture digitisers and FPGA based platforms, that have provided users with firmware level access to customise their instruments to very particular requirements,” says Plumb.

All Test Dynamics employees are graduates of either Electronic Engineering or Physics and have the requisite technical knowledge and acumen to assist in the specifying and engineering of complex test and measurement systems.

“We can also offer training on the platforms to ensure that our customers are able to make the best use of the tools. Some customers prefer to have a turnkey solution, so we will continue to work with the National Instruments Alliance Partner network to assist customers that do not wish to engineer solutions in-house,” Plumb points out.

In addition to the National Instruments products, Test Dynamics also represents a number of globally recognised technology suppliers, including Mac Panel Interconnect, which specialises in mass interconnects for high-density test systems; Quanser, which focuses on teaching and research of controls within the academic space; and Magtrol, which supplies high-precision torque transducers.

“Another brand we will be representing is Micron Optics. This company has been partnering with National Instruments for fibre optic measurements of strain, temperature and displacement in environments where traditional measurements are not easy due to factors such as high EMC or risk of lightning. They have solutions for both low- and high-speed fibre sensing that are easy to incorporate within the LabVIEW environment to build a mixed measurement system,” says Plumb.

Test Dynamics has supplied product within South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Angola, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Mauritius, Reunion, Lesotho and Swaziland.

The company delivered a large system to Sansa for satellite testing; several testing systems were delivered to SAAB, and the team is also working with Shell SA to assist them in delivering a vibration monitoring system to their lubricants division.

“We will continue to add other complementary brands to our portfolio and to expand our geographic and market sector reach. We invite any sector requiring high-quality, proven test and measurement technology to contact us to discuss solutions,” says Plumb.