High reliability automotive lighting testing with CombiTac

A leading Chinese manufacturer of automotive lighting was planning a new manual testing line to guarantee the quality and safety of its next-generation headlamps and rear lights. 

As one of the top players in the Chinese market, the company needed a robust solution that would ensure repeatable test results across a wide range of procedures, from air tightness and photometric analysis to electrical, EMC, environmental and durability testing.

To keep up with rising production volumes and stricter OEM quality expectations, the customers’ testing line had to deliver both high throughput and high reliability. The connectors at the heart of the test setup would play a crucial role: every test sequence required frequent connect/disconnect operations, while maintaining stable signal quality and pneumatic performance over thousands of cycles.

Challenge: many functions in minimal space

The test bench design introduced several demanding requirements. The engineering team had to integrate pneumatic and signal transmission within a very limited space, ensuring that multiple pneumatic lines and a high number of signal contacts could be accommodated without compromising performance or operator accessibility. At the same time, The system needed to be fully leakage free to ensure precise, repeatable and energy efficient test sequences. Adding to the challenge, the entire solution had to reliably withstand up to 100.000 mating cycles, minimizing maintenance and preventing downtime and preventing unplanned downtime throughout continuous operation.

These demands reflect the broader challenges many testing teams face: ensuring testing precision and uptime, integrating new equipment quickly into existing setups, and reducing lifecycle and service costs through robust, long-life components.

A compact all in one connector

To meet these requirements, the customer selected the CombiTac modular connector system from Stäubli. The chosen configuration combined 8 pneumatic couplings with 40 signal contact in a single, compact interface. This enabled blind connection of the test specifications to the manual testing line, simplifying handling for operators and reducing the risk of connection errors.

CombiTac’s modular design allowed the project team to tailor the connector exactly to the test bench layout and functional requirements, while its proven high-precision contacts ensured consistent signal transmission and stable power handling under demanding test conditions. The solution is designed to maintain accuracy over thousands of test cycles and to deliver stable, uninterrupted performance with minimized test failures and unplanned downtime.

Reliable testing, less downtime, lower effort

With the CombiTac solution, the customers’ new manual testing line now supports multiple complex test sequences through a single, compact connector interface. The combination of pneumatic and signal functions in one system reduces setup complexity and operator workload, helping the testing team to work more efficiently while maintaining high safety and quality standards. 

The long-life, low-maintenance design of CombiTac contributes to lower total cost of ownership: fewer connector replacements, reduced maintenance-related downtime and predictable performance over a high number of mating cycles. These advantages support the broader goals Stäubli emphasizes for testing applications, ensuring high reliability, reducing unplanned downtime, and minimizing error related rework.