Fraunhofer Institute for Nondestructive Testing IZFP 
Analysis of static or dynamic properties of materials
Materials form the basis of all types of components and component production systems. The raw materials processing industry supplies other industry segments with materials in the form of semi-finished products, mostly sheet metal, plates, films, wire and rod materials, in addition to powders and pellets. Casting moulds are also supplied. The precision, purity and uniformity of the material composition are crucial for these manufacturing industries. In addition, microstructures and mechanical properties are key factors in how well the materials can be processed in subsequent steps. Given the impact of globalization and digitalization on manufacturing, and in light of advanced production processes that include tightly-toleranced material properties, identifying materials and tracing their origin is becoming an increasingly important task.
Material-producing industries therefore need nondestructive sensors for monitoring and documenting product quality.
Development focus
The determination of the mechanical-technological parameters and the detection of discontinuities, as well as the description of their effects on the further processing, are frequent tasks in this area. From a measurement point of view, while many trade forms of materials have favorable, simple geometries, the still frequently unfinished surfaces and harsh operating conditions (heat or dust in the steelmaking industry) present challenges for carrying out measurements. In these environments, robust magnetic test methods and non-contact procedures based on ultrasound, thermography and microhertz/terahertz waves offer advantages.
Apart from material characterization, material identification is also of interest. This process combines intelligent hybrid sensor technology, machine learning algorithms, and fast databases to identify the material's highly-complex, multi-parametric fingerprint and source. This is also of interest in identifying and recovering raw materials.
Keywords
Materials Characterization, Properties, Identification
