Materials testing is our vocation

For over 20 years, we have been developing
special testing methods and devices

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Paint thickness measurement redefined

Manual or fully automatic

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Monitoring of 3D printing processes

Manufacturer independence is our strength

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The innovative TS500 hand-held scanner

Small, smart, handy

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Safety first - Scan system for turbine blades

Automated, contactless, non-destructive

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About us

More than 20 years of experience

Since 1999, Ingenieurbüro Carl Messtechnik (TZFP) has been developing special testing equipment and special tests for non-destructive testing in the aerospace sector at its Dinslaken site. With the beginning of 2005, infrared optical testing machines were also designed, tested and built. Together with various partners, we manufacture “turnkey” systems specifically and precisely for the area of application.

From the engineering office, THETASCAN® GmbH was founded as an owner-managed company by Dipl.-Ing. Volker Carl.

Today, the company THETASCAN® combines comprehensive knowledge of materials and testing technology and has guaranteed highly innovative inspection processes in the aerospace, automotive and power plant industries since its foundation. With its broad know-how, THETASCAN® provides reliable advice and works out specific solutions with you. Today, our products are distributed worldwide.

What solution can we develop for you?

Interested in a product demonstration?

Make an appointment with us and convince yourself of our products and solutions.

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Products

With our products & services, we are consistently focused on the operational business and are a guarantor for the safety, quality and marketability of products and systems.

The principle of the test methods is based on the measurement of an artificially generated heat flow into the component, which is disturbed in the area of defects and shows thermal reactions on the sample surface.

With the help of our THETASCAN® Scan inspection systems (DIN ISO EN 9712), hidden defects in materials, components and constructions can be detected and monitored before and during operation:

Car Scan

Original or fake? We deliver the result. In just a few minutes!

The specially developed combi-pulse THETASCAN® Car Scanner technology records the paint condition of the vehicle within a few minutes:

full
reproducible
contactless

The result is an infrared image that unmistakably shows the first and second coat, the filler material and the clear coat. The surface is simultaneously thermally stimulated by means of a light pulse and constant heating with the result:

The smallest differences in paint thickness, in the area of a new paint coat, are clearly displayed and shown.
Major repair sites clearly identified.

The process was named “Innovation of the Year 2017” by the editors of AutoBild-Klassik. THETASCAN® Car Scanners are therefore used in the following areas:

Leasing/subscription returns
Production
Quality control
Expert opinion
Second-hand vehicle market

The user-friendly and comprehensible operation requires only a short training.

To enable the automation of vehicle inspection, THETASCAN® has developed a 3D robot system perfectly tailored to the requirement of thermographic inspections.

The THETASCAN® 3D Car Check System:

An automatic thermographic 3D measurement system. Based on the scanning technology we developed, it combines high-resolution digital imaging technology with a three-dimensional inspection of the vehicles. Here, not only individual punctual partial areas are recorded, but the complete vehicle surfaces including roof and bonnet. A complete system, perfectly tailored to your inspection needs. Fast and highly precise.

Monitoring 3D printing

Safety plays a special role not only in aviation. The smallest mistakes can have catastrophic consequences. We support companies that place the highest quality requirements on their products. THETASCAN® monitors your product requirements with you at every production stage of 3D printing.

In the field of 3D printing, one or more high-resolution cameras monitor the verification of laser positioning (even with multiple lasers in operation) the position detection in hybrid production, etc. The great advantage of our monitoring is the independence from different machine types and the transferability of the results to other machine types and manufacturers.

3D Printing Machine

Laser-Sintering-Machine

Process control monitors the welding process during the production of a layer. Since the laser welds at a different location at each point during the production of the layer, each pixel is only exposed once during a continuous exposure of a high-resolution, high-sensitivity camera. This allows the positioning of the laser to be checked and deviations from the target position to be re-measured with the help of a geometry calibration. This is particularly interesting for “multi-laser systems”, as deviations in focus can lead to component deviations. The intensity of the exposure is also a measure of the energy coupled into the powder bed. Deviations in the flow of the shielding gas lead to different oxidation processes with different temperature reactions.

For series production, it is important that the quality of the components is uniformly good. Therefore, the quality of the production must be monitored in order to be able to compare it when several machines are used, possibly machines from different manufacturers. This can only succeed if the results are transferable, i.e. only if all measured variables are standardised or calibrated.

The THETASCAN® system is machine-independent (off – axis), a basic requirement for the comparability of different systems. Only a signal from the coater is needed to trigger the system at the end of the layer. The camera system requires use outside the installation space, ideally near the laser window.

The system consists of a 19 inch delivery cabinet containing the computer and the trigger unit. Each manufactured layer is stored in the system so that a stack is available at the end of a job. Already during the construction phase, each layer is checked for deviations so that the user can intervene if necessary.

Since 2011, we have been developing the technology further together with MTU Aero Engines. You can rely on our experience.

The following companies are already among our customers in the field of “monitoring 3D printing”:

Hand Scan

The reliable testing system for variable use.

Small, smart and handy, the THETASCAN® Handscan. A qualified testing device, developed for spot checks of:

CFRP and GRP materials
Online checks of metal printing processes

The advantage in contrast to conventional testing devices:

Immediate test result
Logged documentation

Used in various applications in the aerospace and marine sectors.

The device is pointed at the test surface. The other hand induces a thermal excitation on the test surface. In the event of an inhomogeneity in the material, the heat flow from this generates temperature gradients on the surface and creates a thermal field.

Delaminations,
Lunker,
Drilling and
Different wall thicknesses

with the THETASCAN® hand-held scanner as visible sources of error.

Testing equipment for turbine blades

Non-contact and non-destructive testing of major components

For decades, THETASCAN® has been developing active thermography as a testing method for power plant technology and aerospace into a quantitative measuring technique for detecting defects and measuring specific geometric parameters: Our customers are among the world’s largest suppliers of gas and aircraft turbines. Companies that rely on our reliable inspection quality.

This also applies to our automated system for testing highly stressed gas and aircraft turbine blades.

Here we analyse the following functional properties:

Delamination of the ceramic & metallic coatings
Layer thicknesses of the ceramic coatings
Wall thicknesses of the investment casting buckets
Cooling channel blockages
Discontinuity detection

Impeller-Gas-Turbine

Gasturbine

Airplane-Turbine

Impeller-Turbine

The THETASCAN® inspection system is maintenance-free when using uncooled camera systems. The evaluation is automated and has been calibrated on reference standards beforehand.

Training or certification is required for operation, which is offered by the National Aerospace NDT Board, e.g. at Airbus.

Special test

Well positioned in all areas

In the sensitive areas of aerospace and nuclear fusion reactors, development is progressing rapidly. This constantly results in new requirements for material testing. In exchange with manufacturers and suppliers, THETASCAN® tests lighthouse projects worldwide in order to detect defects in novel materials to the maximum. In this way, THETASCAN® makes a decisive contribution to the safety of the respective components.

As early as 1992, we (Dipl. Ing. Volker Carl) were commissioned by NASA to test the solar panels for the Skylab project, whose solar cells (after a collision during launch with a micrometeorite shield) still produced sufficient energy to control the station.

Furthermore, we were commissioned with the material testing of the

Tail control flaps of the NASA experimental space glider X-38 and
of the tail control flaps of ESA’s IXV space glider,

made entirely of C/SiC composite ceramics.

As is the case at ITER, the international thermonuclear experimental fusion reactor in Cadarache, France.

At the heart of the TOKAMAK reactor here is the cryostat, a name for the high-vacuum pressure chamber that encloses the reactor core and is designed to cool it.

Inside it, a magnetic field cage is built up in part by external magnetic coils enclosing an annular plasma vessel.

The other part of the magnetic field is generated by an electrical, time-limited direct current flowing in the plasma and triggered by a transformer coil.

Again, THETASCAN® is in charge of the material testing of the inner graphite plate architecture.