At Control 2025, the international trade fair for quality assurance, the Fraunhofer Institute for Nondestructive Testing (IZFP) from Saarbrücken will showcase its innovative VISiMOS demonstrator, a groundbreaking tool that visualizes properties and defects in steel components. The demonstration is part of the public research project "Visualization of properties and defects in steel components using intelligent magneto-optical sensor technology" (VISiMOS). Fraunhofer IZFP researchers will present the intelligent demonstrator at the 37th Control trade fair, which takes place from May 6 to 9, 2025, at the joint Fraunhofer Vision business unit stand in Stuttgart (Neue Messe, Hall 7, Stand 7301).
Steel components are critical across various industries and often need to meet stringent safety requirements. Ensuring the quality of these components by evaluating material properties, conditions, and defect-free surfaces is essential. Traditional quality assurance methods, such as destructive testing, are not only costly but can only be carried out on a random basis. Nondestructive testing techniques, like micro-magnetic material characterization, provide a solution, but these methods have reached technical limitations when trying to combine high spatial resolution and testing speed.
“In the VISiMOS project, steel components are to be tested nondestructively, quickly and with high spatial resolution. We have developed a new type of magneto-optical testing system based on the so-called Faraday effect. Using a digital camera, we can visualize magnetic field strength distributions on material surfaces in the form of grey-scale images in quasi real time,” explained Lukas Lauck, scientific project manager of the VISiMOS project at Fraunhofer IZFP.
The VISiMOS demonstrator builds on earlier scientific work that demonstrated the ability to derive micromagnetic characteristics from magneto-optical image sequences. This allows for the precise assessment of material conditions and the detection of cracks. "Using a special high-speed camera, we have now further optimized the VISiMOS demonstrator in order to be able to generate high-resolution stress distributions and defect images within a very short time," continued Lauck.
A major goal of VISiMOS is to increase testing speed, allowing large-scale industrial applications, such as the testing of wheelset shafts, to be completed in just a few seconds. VISiMOS offers fast, highly precise measurement of material surfaces, with high spatial resolution in the micrometer range, enabling an exact analysis of material conditions and defects. The technology ensures that test specimens remain intact, which reduces costs and conserves valuable material resources. Additionally, it meets the industry's growing demand for precise, environmentally friendly, and cost-efficient testing methods.
The VISiMOS public research project is funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) as part of the VIP+ funding program, with €1.03 million allocated (funding code: 03VP10900). The project, which began in March 2023, will run through February 2026, with its results being presented to a broad specialist audience for the first time at Control 2025.
Fraunhofer IZFP’s innovative work in this area is set to revolutionize quality assurance for steel components, offering fast, non-destructive, and highly accurate testing solutions that are both cost-efficient and environmentally sustainable.
Reference: https://idw-online.de/de/news850936
