New Dual SONOAIR & COBOT Setup - Roadshow USA
Ultrasonic testing made easy -with collaborating robots (COBOTS) and nondestructive testing (NDT)!
Our application engineer and expert for air-coupled UT and phased-array testing has conducted three workshops in the last two weeks on air-coupled ultrasound testing with a collaborative robot in the US. The highlight of his trip was a visit to NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Alabama.
September 24, 2019 - Long Island Breakfast with a COBOT, New York
At the end of September, Tobias Gautzsch held a workshop in New York with Universal Robots distributor Axis NJ on NDT with robotic air-coupled ultrasound and presented our latest innovation in cooperation with Radalytica s.r.o: A SONOAIR - COBOT setup. Since the sale of the world's first COBOT in 2008, Universal Robots has seen a turnaround in industrial process optimization and work-sharing between man and machine. Companies of all sizes and industries recognize the benefits of using COBOTS. Simple programming allows robots to automate tasks such as welding, palletizing, mounting and screwing.
Also in nondestructive testing COBOTS are gaining more and more importance. SONOTEC wants to accompany this industrial change with its innovative and worldwide first ultrasonic air-coupled phased-array system SONOAIR. SONOTEC has developed together with Universal Robot's partner Radalytica s.r.o an innovative SONOAIR - COBOT setup. During a lunch break on Long Island, it was introduced to the attendees and Tobias Gautzsch demonstrated how easy it is to automate virtually any task using collaborative robot technology. Air-coupled ultrasonic testing and COBOTS are ideal for scanning large areas and can easily be modified to test a variety of complex components.
September 26, 2019 - NASA Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama
From New York, our air-coupled ultrasound expert and Toni Bailey of TB3 NDT Consulting LLC moved on to Huntsville, Alabama, NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center. As part of NASA's two-week ASNT Ultrasound Level 3 course, conducted annually by NASA's TB3 NDT Consulting LLC, NASA's first-ever, one-day training in the basics of airborne ultrasound was conducted. Based on the theory and practice of the SONOTEC SONOAIR demo system, the workshop participants were shown that air-coupled ultrasonic testing is ideal for inspecting aerospace parts, as it does not contaminate or damage the inspected components. In addition, in this industry often strongly dampening materials and structures such as composites or honeycomb structures are installed. These structures and materials can be better penetrated with air-coupled ultrasound and without risking to introduce moisture by the test in the components. In space, this would evaporate abruptly due to the vacuum and could lead to severe damage to satellites and rockets.
The participants were particularly impressed by the opportunity to use the Dual Cobot System from SONOTEC and Radalytica to combine the NDT methods of air-coupled ultrasound and X-ray in order to combine the advantages of both methods in one inspection.
October 4, 2019 - Lunch and Learn, New York (SONOTEC US office)
At the beginning of October, the yearly Lunch and Learn Workshop took place at the SONOTEC US office in New York. For this annual event, selected customers of SONOTEC US are invited to Islandia / NY for a one-day training course to learn the basics of air-coupled ultrasound and to gain their first experiences at SONOAIR. We were very pleased to receive support from Axis NJ, who made it possible to train the ultrasonic inspection at the COBOT for the first time at Lunch and Learn. Together with business unit director Manuel Lucas and business unit director Andreas Mück, Tobias discussed the ideas and test tasks with the attendees. SONOTEC continues to look forward to a successful collaboration and the implementation of exciting projects with the Universal Robots partner Radalytica s.r.o!
