VisiConsult joined panel discussion about non-destructive testing (NDT) and Industry 4.0

The German Society for Non-Destructive Testing (DGZfP) hosted the annual conference in Coblenz and invited many representatives of different companies throughout the NDT industry. Also VisiConsult X-ray Systems & Solutions GmbH, the specialist for standard and customized systems in the sector of industrial X-ray inspection, has attended the annual conference and contributed its know-how concerning “NDT and Industry 4.0” duringa panel discussion. Lennart Schulenburg, sales and marketing manager of VisiConsult has stated VisiConsult’s position. “The implementation of Industry 4.0 requires not only standardized communication interfaces, but also highly flexible solutions. To maintain high efficiency and testing reliability, specialized systems which are customized towards the particular task are necessary”, describes Lennart Schulenburg the challenges of Industry 4.0 in the inspection industry.

VisiConsult has the aim to integrate the processes and developments of Industry 4.0 into its portfolio and is working on new strategy concepts since years to push the industrialization as well as the digitization. Mostly in the automotive industry VisiConsult was able to successfully integrate fully automated X-ray testing systems. These systems identify defects inside the components fully automatic using automated defect recognition (ADR) and evaluation and perform decisions on their own. This provides high process safety and full traceability.

Furthermore, the future of the classic NDT was on discussion. Prof. Randolf Hanke, director of the Fraunhofer IZFP, stated in his presentation that “testing in the ‘classical’ sense will become less important” and the “classical NDT auditor will only be needed in exceptional cases”. Hence, Prof. Hanke states that the industry is changing, driven by Industry 4.0. Therefore, also companies have to develop their working and production processes to be able to keep up with the advancement.