Due to ever-increasing quality expectations of both the processing industry and consumers, efficient quality control has become indispensable. Particularly in the processing of metals and plastics, many production defects can occur that conflict with this quality requirement. Reliable, flawless defect detection, such as cracks in stamping parts, is therefore essential. Detecting these defects can significantly reduce additional rework costs and reduce or even prevent the financial loss associated with rejects. Furthermore, adequately implemented crack detection or other production defects substantially increases quality and efficiency.

While some industries continue to rely on traditional quality inspection methods such as manual visual inspection, other industries have already recognized the benefits of automated quality inspection. In the automotive industry, for example, automatic crack detection in production leads to significant efficiency gains and quality improvements and has a cost-cutting effect.

When the optical inspection is carried out by trained staff, numerous aspects need to be optimized. Visual inspection carried out by humans is error-prone, expensive, and often too slow to ensure an efficient process flow, even though employees are extensively trained and highly skilled. Besides, fluctuation in concentration levels along with a person’s physical and mental condition make it very difficult to ensure reliable, consistent, and objective results.

To avoid these fluctuations in the inspection results, every part produced in production must be analyzed according to the same standards, and critical cracks must be detected quickly and reliably. Furthermore, proper classification and extensive documentation of production defects are of great importance. Automated crack detection can satisfy these quality control requirements. In order to achieve a measurable improvement in the existing production process, it should also be possible to implement a fully automated, software-based solution in the current system. For this reason, elunic has been developing advanced Industry 4.0 solutions that utilize AI to automatically detect cracks during production in a cost-efficient and stable manner. This can save big investments in staff training and avoid errors due to fluctuations in individual human fitness. As a result, efficient quality assurance processes lead to a significant increase in the overall quality of the end products.