Operation

Product inspection or condition monitoring during the utilization phase

In the field of inspection and monitoring of structures during operation or maintenance, Fraunhofer IZFP focuses on the development of nondestructive methods and procedures for condition monitoring and condition assessment, including lifecycle management. These activities range from processes for component and parts maintenance, to complete monitoring systems for condition-based inspection applications.

In this area, researchers evaluate various NDT technologies such as ultrasound, electromagnetics, eddy current, microwave, thermography and combinations thereof (multimodal NDT). Using these technologies as a foundation, inspection concepts, laboratory samples and prototypes are developed for applications in the automotive, railway, aerospace, energy technology and infrastructure industries.

Challenges in the field of Service / Maintenance will increasingly shift towards condition-based maintenance in the sense of "predictive maintenance," where NDT-based condition monitoring will be an essential part of the value chain. Much of this research focuses on quantitative ultrasound inspection systems. In this context, EMAT (electromagnetically excited ultrasound transducer) is of special interest for guided waves, while ultrasound-based sampling phased array is of special interest for three-dimensional image processing.

These methods are used for various inspection-related issues in the maintenance and diagnostics of safety-relevant components, such as for railway (wheel set inspection), infrastructure (concrete inspection) and plant (pipeline inspection) systems. With this in mind, the institute carries out diverse R&D activities that focus on the development of new reconstruction and image processing algorithms for data evaluation and data visualization. This also applies to the combination of multiple NDT methods for multi-modal inspection applications. An important trend here is the entire field of condition monitoring, which involves permanent monitoring with the goal of optimized resource efficiency and/or for assessing the safety margins of components or operational systems. This field is becoming increasingly important not only in the energy (nuclear power plants et al.) and aerospace sectors, but also in the railway, infrastructure and plant industries. The development of a multi-modal sensor platform with specific sensor technology and data analysis is at the forefront of current research activities.

Keywords

Condition Monitoring, Lifecycle Management, Controling