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.
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 metal 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.
Battery Inspection |
In cell production, CT inspection helps address the costly challenge of high scrap rates by detecting defects early, including contamination, inclusions, and cathode/anode overhang issues. As cells are stacked into modules, our systems deliver precise assessments of weld seams, cell orientation, and tab welding, with laminography also enabling overhang measurements on installed cells. Finally, when modules are integrated into complete battery systems, CT inspection verifies the critical connection between modules and the metal housing that serves as a heat sink — ensuring all components are fully functional and supporting the reliability, range, and longevity of the finished vehicle.
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.
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.
Metal Casting |
X-ray inspection is an essential tool for castings because it allows for the non-destructive evaluation of the internal structure of the cast component. By evaluating potential defects that may be hiding beneath the surface and can have a significant effect on the strength of a part, manufacturers can ensure the part’s structural integrity remains unharmed, and if needed adjust their casting process to suit.
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.
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.
Electronics |
Modern vehicles, especially electric ones, contain a wide array of sensors, control units, actuators, communication networks, and electronic management systems. These critical components must withstand harsh conditions like high temperatures, vibration, and electrical stress to ensure reliable, long-term performance. While many defects resemble those in commercial electronics, challenges arise from multi-material designs and specialized housings during quality control. Laminography is ideal for inspecting flat, planar components, revealing assembly accuracy and mechanical defects such as broken connections or circuit boards, while for complex 3D chip packages, high-resolution 3D X-ray (CT) enables precise measurement and the detection of minute defects like non-wet joints, head-in-pillow, or bump shifts. Comet Yxlon systems like the CA20 (specialized for semiconductors), FF35 CT or Cheetah EVO leverage these techniques for effective quality assurance and failure analysis.
Tire Inspection |
Whether directly integrated into the production process or for product development: Industrial X-ray inspection systems support the operator during quality assurance and can be especially powerful combined with our assisted defect recognition (ADR) software options. These allow either operator support with grading and reporting of potential defects, or even a fully-automated evaluation of the X-ray image.
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.
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).
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.
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.
