INPRO Innovationsgesellschaft mbH Berlin

Sensors and signal processing

Quality is a key factor in today's automotive industry and can heavily impact on customer satisfaction.

Many test methods used today for quality assurance in manufacturing require high manual effort and therefore cost-intensive inputs or are of a destructive nature. In addition, there is an increasing desire to not only carry out statistical quality assurance, but also to carry  out 100 % automated testing in the manufacturing facility. For the purpose of zero-defect production, this is designed to ensure that no defective parts leave the manufacturing plant.

As far as quality assurance is concerned, INPRO applies non-destructive components testing and has specialized in:

• detection of structural boundaries and structures
• surface examination on technical functional surfaces
• testing of massive components (cracks, cavities, voids)
• non-destructive inline components testing of welding joints 

Examples of applications include inline testing of laser beads and welding points, surface testing on crankshaft bearing surfaces and piston rods, or non-destructive determination of the hardening depth of crankshaft bearing surfaces. Further applications in the field of process monitoring and optimization of joint processes are being handled on in our closely related field of  "Thermal and mechanical joining."

Practical testing of different measurement processes and sensors are available at this INSPRO testing facility:

• thermography imaging systems with different heat cameras (detector cameras and bolometer cameras) and different stimulation processes
• laser ultrasonic laboratory testing equipment with nanosecond pulse lasers and speckle interferometers
• test bench for turbulence sensor testing with rotationally sytematic parts
• sensors and measurement recorders for acoustic quality assurance 
• simulation software