AUSTIN, TX, and EDEN PRAIRIE, MN-MTS Systems Corp. and National Instruments have entered a long-term contractual agreement to deliver a low-cost framework for standardized noise and vibration testing. The companies will address the need for more cost-effective test solutions that engineers can use in exploratory testing and in standardizing test procedures across facilities and among system suppliers. With National Instruments engineering support, MTS is spearheading the development of this new noise and vibration test framework using its current products and National Instruments' software and hardware for test automation.

"Testing for noise and vibration is fundamental to product development everywhere. MTS' commitment to continued growth in product development testing makes our investment in a next generation, noise and vibration framework a strategic imperative," says Sidney W. Emery Jr., chairman and CEO of MTS. "National Instruments is world renowned for their experience and leadership in automating tests based on open and economical computing platforms. By combining their expertise and market reach with our 30 years of noise and vibration application experience in the automotive and aerospace industries, we will offer a new level of affordability, flexibility and productivity to noise and vibration testing."

MTS plans to use the National Instruments' LabVIEW software platform as the cornerstone of this new framework and will provide increasing support in the framework for National Instruments' current and future software and instrumentation offerings. The new framework will help noise and vibration experts to quickly define and inexpensively deploy standardized tests that engineers and technicians can use in product development and manufacturing, effectively applying the same tools for test development and test automation.