Industrial inspection equipment doesn’t appear in mainstream news on a regular basis. But that’s what happened when Samsung found itself in the unenviable position of determining why its Note 7 smart phones had turned pyrotechnic.

When explaining surface finish measurement, it can be helpful to start with the classic metaphor of a desert, as often described by gage maker Taylor Hobson. Imagine grains of sand as roughness, the ripples of sand as waviness, and then the undulating dunes as the surface profile.

Carbon fiber reinforced plastics, or CFRPs, are found throughout the aerospace and automotive industries, as well as in high-performance sporting goods, due to their light-weight, high-strength properties.

As multi-sensor machines grow in popularity, so does their flexibility and the variety of optional sensors. One of the newest solutions of choice is confocal white light sensors for non-contact measurement.

Pick up a material analysis data sheet and you’ll always find tensile testing, and probably flexural testing as well. But depending on the application, don’t hold your breath looking for compressive testing.

Industrial computed tomography has been a buzz-worthy technology for several years, and NDT experts know it’s a valuable tool for inspecting the complex internal geometries of 3D-printed parts, or for finding porosity in both additively and traditionally manufactured parts.

Regular tensile testing is important for checking rigid plastics through the entire manufacturing cycle, from the raw material to the forming process and ultimately the production part.

Deciding whether to perform inspections in-house or to hire contract service providers is not solely a question of upfront investment versus long-term need. For some suppliers, a third-party contract service can also provide assurance that parts have been inspected and approved by an unbiased party.

In the dark ages before the prevalence of LED lighting choices, shop floors had to rely on consumer lighting options, like fluorescent and incandescent bulbs, or later, through xenon bulbs concentrated through fiber optics, according to Bradley Weber, Datalogic’s application engineering leader and industry product specialist for manufacturing.

Flexural strength testing has become increasingly important for plastics—especially composite and carbon fiber-reinforced plastics—as structural parts in the aerospace industry are made from these newer materials.