Multi-material design, e-mobility, autonomous driving: In the fast-changing automotive sector, quality assurance must keep up with new challenges. Just like the industry, Comet Yxlon X-ray and CT systems are evolving constantly.
Supporting changing demands in quality control
In the automotive sector, quality assurance has always been extremely versatile due to the variety of components. With the shift towards new drive systems and connectivity, the complexity of this task has increased even more. With our X-ray and CT systems, Comet Yxlon supports automotive manufacturers and OEMs in their aim to produce highest quality products in the most cost-efficient and sustainable way – and to prevent rejects before they occur.
Applications of industrial X-ray in automotive
- Metal castings
- Electronics
- E-mobility / batteries
- Tires
X-ray and CT inspection of metal castings, vehicle electronics, and tires
Classic applications of X-ray technology in the automotive sector include metal castings, such as engine components and chassis parts, but also electronical and electromechanical components, such as sensors and control devices, and tires.
What's your inspection challenge?
From cutting-edge inspection systems to the award-winning user interface Geminy – at Comet Yxlon, we support our customers with innovative products and services that help them shape future markets. From cast parts to batteries and even miniscule electronic components, based on your specific application, there could be a range of suitable hardware and software systems that could take your analysis further. Explore three such products below, or visit our smart product finder to find the perfect product fit.
UX20
Fast and easy inspection of cast parts
The UX20 is designed for intuitive operation across all expertise levels — in manual, assisted, or automated mode. It delivers benchmark image quality and fast 2D and 3D results, and is supported by smart software tools such as our Geminy user interface, ScatterFix 2.0 for improved CT data quality, and SmartGuard for collision-safe positioning. For even larger, complex and dense parts, our UX50 brings a large inspection envelope, multiple field-of-view extensions, and a powerful 450 kV X-ray tube.
UX50
Powerful CT inspection in a compact design
Equipped with a 450 kV X-ray tube and a large inspection envelope, the UX50 is designed to handle complex, dense parts across a wide range of automotive applications, such as metal casting, additive manufacturing and more. It offers exceptional flexibility through a choice of line detector and flat-panel detector configurations — or both simultaneously —while the comprehensive set of CT techniques and image quality optimizations, including ScatterFix 2.0, beam hardening correction, and metal artifact reduction, ensure outstanding results across varying part sizes and materials.
FF85 CT
Precision and versatility for the largest parts
The FF85 CT is a high-energy, high-resolution CT system featuring a dual-tube configuration for maximum flexibility. From microCT applications to high-energy CT inspection, the FF85 CT can handle parts of vastly different sizes and materials — and is available in configurations supporting parts weighing up to 1,000 kg. A granite-based manipulator with up to 7 axes ensures exceptional precision and temperature stability, while a broad set of CT trajectories and image enhancement tools ensure incredible results.
The e-mobility challenge: bigger parts, multi-materials
The transition to electric mobility presents the automotive industry with various challenges:
- Castings are becoming larger and more complex to reduce assembly steps
- The need for weight reduction leads to the use of new materials such as carbon fiber-reinforced plastics
- Electrification requires fewer, but oftentimes multi-material components (aluminum, plastic, potting compounds, copper, steel)
- Battery cells, battery modules, and complete battery systems become critical components
The solution: CT systems for in-line and at-line testing
Comet Yxlon offers highly precise CT systems (e.g., for prototype and pre-series development), which reveal the internal structures of a part without destroying it. From initial sampling to inspection during production, industrial CT opens up excellent possibilities: While R&D labs benefit from the flexibility of the FF20 CT, FF35 CT and FF85 CT systems and their outstanding precision and accuracy, the universal inspection systems UX20 and UX50 for use in production environments bank on the easy, intuitive operation and mechanical robustness.
Using automation to streamline inspection processes
Due to its high volumes, the automotive industry is strongly production-driven and subject to price pressure. Comet Yxlon systems use automated inspection processes to reduce complexity, such as: creating automated test reports, recording dimensional accuracy and image quality, or facilitating user-independent inspection decisions with computer-aided evaluations, also known as automated defect recognition (ADR).
Automotive quality solutions: radial tire inspection
Today, hundreds of Comet Yxlon inspection systems are integrated into production lines worldwide to inspect components fully automatically, both castings and tires. Just one example: The in-line inspection system MTIS is the most successful X-ray inspection system for radial tires and gathers valuable data from each tire for statistical process control and feedback to production.
MTIS. A leading X-ray system for radial tire inspection
With more than 375 units sold worldwide, MTIS is one of the most popular inspection solutions in its class, delivering high uptime for reliable 24/7 inline operation. Its leading image quality and 4-spindle manipulation ensure outstanding accuracy and fully reproducible inspection results. Automatic defect recognition (ADR) drives objective, efficient inspection, while data acquisition from every tire enables comprehensive statistical process control.
AI-powered Insight
with Dragonfly 3D World
Most Comet Yxlon inspection systems can be equipped with the advanced 3D visualization and analysis software from Dragonfly – a Comet brand. As an innovative company with roots in science and research, Dragonfly has been at driving forward AI development for 20 years.
Their core product, Dragonfly 3D World, uses a machine learning based segmentation engine to extract powerful qualitative and quantitative findings from images with ease. Analyze wall-thickness for your casted parts, measure deviations from design, or identify and measure porosities within an intuitive and powerful interface.
