One Analysis Environment for Every Test: Inside PowerPlay 6

Occupant-safety testing produces two fundamentally different kinds of data, and the engineering answer almost always lives in the space between them. On one side is high-speed video — the deployment sequence, membrane kinematics, the moment a cushion contacts the fixture. On the other is time-series sensor data — tank pressure, load, displacement, acceleration. Look at either in isolation and you see half the picture. Correlate them on a common time base and you can tie a pressure inflection or a load spike to the exact frame that explains it.

That correlation is what PowerPlay, now in its sixth generation, is built to deliver. It is the Microsys analysis and reporting environment that sits downstream of the capture hardware and turns raw test output into results an engineer can act on and a quality organization can defend.

Video and sensor data, synchronized

PowerPlay places multiple video image windows and multiple sensor-data graph windows side by side, with playback of both streams time-synchronized to a single reference. The same tool that lets you scrub an inflator's pressure-time curve against the ballistic event also lets you overlay pretensioner belt displacement against buckle motion, or step through a sled run frame by frame against its accelerometer channels. One environment spans inflator and ballistic tank testing, airbag static deployment and burst tests, seat belt pretensioner testing, and full crash, sled, barrier, pendulum, and head-impact work.

Analysis, not just playback

Where PowerPlay separates itself is in the math. Built-in arithmetic processing operates directly on data windows — integration, differentiation, statistics, and SAE J211 filtering — so channels are conditioned to the correct frequency class before you compare or report them. Multiple result files can be loaded and displayed simultaneously, which is how teams put prototypes, production lots, and competing manufacturing techniques next to each other without exporting to a separate package.

Format support is deliberately open. Alongside complete handling of the SureFire "TST" format, PowerPlay reads industry-standard image and data formats including TIFF, JPEG, BMP, GIF, AVI, BAYER, and ISO-13499 — so raw camera output and standardized crash-data exchange files move through the same toolchain without conversion headaches or vendor lock-in.

From raw capture to a signed-off report

Analysis only counts once it is documented. PowerPlay generates test reports directly into MS Excel using customer-controlled templates, which keeps LAT, COP, and DV/PV output consistent, traceable, and formatted to your organization's own standards rather than a generic export. An optional multi-window AVI toolkit takes it a step further, producing a single time-synchronized movie that carries multiple camera views and sensor data together — ideal for design reviews or failure investigations where everyone needs to see the same event the same way. Additional toolkits extend the platform into dedicated crash analysis and more, so a single installation grows with the lab.

Sharing results, without the seat cost

Not everyone who needs to see a test result needs a full analysis license. PowerPlay LE is a free, royalty-free viewing edition that opens every file type SureFire and PowerPlay produce and keeps the core viewing experience — side-by-side image and data windows with time-synchronized playback — while leaving out the analysis, reporting, and AVI-creation functions. It lets you distribute test data to customers and suppliers so they can visualize the action and read the sensor measurements with the same tool your engineers used, no strings attached.

Whether you are characterizing an inflator inside an iTank, deploying an airbag, firing a pretensioner, or running a barrier test, PowerPlay is the common analysis layer beneath all of it — and it integrates seamlessly with SureFire Test Systems.

To evaluate PowerPlay 6 for your lab, or to add it to an existing SureFire installation, contact the Microsys team.