IBG Eddy Current Systems

IBG Eddy Current Systems

IBG Eddy Current Systems for Crack Detection and Material Properties.

IBG has over 20 year’s experience designing and manufacturing state-of-the-art eddy current instruments and systems for testing of critical mass-produced components. They provide the complete turn-key solution to your eddy current testing needs.

Testing for cracks and other surface flaws and material properties such as hardness, case depth, mixed structures and alloy integrity is done quickly and with precision.

Components tested typically have been subjected to processes of forming, heat treating, machining and finishing, are critical to the function, safety or value of the end product.

Often, products tested are engine, transmission and drive train components; steering, chassis and suspension components; valve train components; gears; shafts; bearings and bearing components; fasteners, etc.

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     IBG Heat Treat Systems 

Eddyvisor screen Preventive Multi-Frequency Test PMFTIBG heat treat systems can test the material properties of heat-treated parts to ensure they are heat treated within specification and don’t have a material mix-up. Eddy current structure tests, utilizing established Preventive Multi-Frequency Technology (PMFT) and Simultaneous Harmonic Analysis by IBG, guarantees maximum test reliability in 100% of testing, with a nondestructive benefit.



     The Way To Test Heat Treated Parts 

Eddy Current Testing on Bearing Rings, Steering Nut, and Large Ball

Heat treatment simply affects the relative permeability of parts: hardened structures demonstrate lower permeability than soft ones. Using PMFT with small magnetic fields will determine whether parts are 'good' and show no saturation effects within the linear range of the hysteresis curve. Magnetic fields distorted by hysteresis contain higher frequency harmonics. Fourier analysis of the distorted fundamental waves reveals higher frequency harmonics. Harmonics analysis will show a detailed view of the magnetic features of the part and its exact microstructure. This analysis offers significant benefits when suppressing interferences like batch scattering, part geometry, and part temperature or positioning effects. Because harmonics signals are small, significant electronic analysis is needed to distinguish them from the underlying noise. Such small signals can be detected clearly and processed robustly by IBG's unique digital Eddyvisor® and Eddyliner eddy current instrument family.

Parts affected by heat treatment inspected by IBG systems include parts made of alloys, metal, stainless steel, and carbon steel. These can consist of balls, bearing rings, cylindrical parts, and many others.

     Material Property Testing & Sorting 

IBG Coil Structure Test on Screws IBG's state-of-the-art material property testing eddy current systems use digital electronics to nondestructively test materials in accurate, repeatable ways with high resolution. These eddy current systems are easy to implement and maintain. When appropriately applied, multi-frequency test protocols can extend eddy current testing scope and increase reliability. These systems are ready to test with as few as 15 to 20 parts to ensure a sufficient statistical base for allowable production variables. At each test frequency, readings develop tolerance zones for encompassed readings at specific frequencies. Once you establish the size, shape, and position of each tolerance zone, parts can be tested in up to eight specified frequencies.

Parts that pass each specific measured value for every tolerance zone pass as 'accepted.' If parts fail to meet any single criterion, they are rejected. This method is best-practice because a variety of metallurgical anomalies can exist: hardness variations may be detected as low as 1 kilohertz (kHz), including material mix austenite, intemperate marten-site, beanie, partite and ferrite in their various combinations. Testing times have dropped considerably with IBG's latest electronic eddy current solutions; it takes less than 100 milliseconds (0.1 seconds) to test a part with eight different frequencies. Most importantly, unexpected mixed structures from problematic heat-treat errors are detected and sorted away from production.

     Crack & Grinder Burn Eddy Current Testing 

Crack and Grinder Test on Flanged Inner RingThe new IBG family of eddy current test instruments include systems that can perform 100% inline tests for crack and grinder burn with a high degree of test reliability. Implementing automated, modular eddy current testing systems such as Eddyvisor C, Eddyliner C, and Eddyguard C can speed up manufacturing processes while maintaining a high-degree of flaw detection accuracy. Nondestructive testing of metal components, mass-produced parts, and semi-finished products for cracks, pores and grinder burn through Preventive Multi-Filter Technology (PMFT) and Simultaneous Harmonic Analysis allow for improved inline detection in your production lines. 360-degree tolerance zones, combined with testing in up to 30 band pass filters and IBG's 'good-part-only' calibration concept, allows for detection of flaws often missed by conventional instruments with a 'known-flaw-oriented' configuration.

There can be considerable cost-savings compared to magnetic particle and other testing methods, particularly for finished machined parts and as-formed parts. The difference between eddy current testing for crack detection compared to material testing, is that it consists of high-speed, high-precision surface scanning. A 1 mm (or less) diameter probe scans small sections of a part's surface and scans the surface area with high precision to detect small cracks and flaws accurately. Establishing the error-proof testing process involves monitoring the rotation rate of the part and scan rate of the probe to ensure no surface areas are skipped.