360° free fall testing system

Free-fall testing system: Contactless and fully automatic testing of small parts

When many different small parts need to be inspected, conventional systems quickly reach their limits. Manual visual inspections are prone to errors, contact measurements are too slow, and complex workpiece handling drives up costs. The result: unclear inspection quality, high costs, and limited cost-effectiveness.

The free-fall testing system solves these challenges with a completely new approach. Small parts are fed in as bulk material, fall freely through the system, and are inspected on all sides using high-resolution cameras and precise sensor technology—without any mechanical contact. Each part is analyzed and evaluated in free fall and automatically sorted into OK or NOK.

This results in contactless, fast, and component-independent quality control that can be flexibly integrated into any production process and ensures reliable results even with a high degree of variant diversity.

Available as a stand-alone testing system or as an inline quality control system.

Detect:
– Contaminants
– Surface defects
– Dimensional deviations
in free fall

360° coverage of every component

The system captures components in free fall from all sides using multiple cameras. This ensures that your components are captured 100% in a single recording process.

The motto: fast, flexible, and precise!

Technical highlights

• 360° inspection in free fall
  16 high-resolution cameras capture every component from all angles.
• No setup required – Type-independent
  Tests different geometries and materials without component-specific handling.
• Non-contact testing
  No mechanical influence or damage to the parts.
• High-speed testing
  Ideal for series production and high volumes.
• Automatic OK/NOK sorting
  Reliable separation of tested parts immediately after the inspection.
• Fraunhofer IPM basic technology
  Developed and patented by Fraunhofer IPM, Freiburg.
• Proven testing technology
  Industrially developed for 24/7 use

Fields of application

The testing system is ideal for various applications in industrial quality control: for components ranging in size from dice to fist-sized.

• Incoming goods inspection
• Production-related random sampling (batch control)
• 100% final inspection

Ideal for:

• Plastic and injection molded parts
  Seals, clips, plugs, caps, housings, connectors, closure components
• Electrical engineering components
  Contacts, pins, small parts for plugs, plug connections
• Metal & turned parts
  Screws, bolts, sleeves, fasteners, mounting parts, formed parts
• CNC-machined precision parts made of steel, aluminum, or brass

Replacing visual inspection:
The innovative solution for inspecting and sorting bulk materials

The inspection process is fully automated and enables fast, precise, and contactless quality control of small parts.

Loading
The first step is to fill the storage bunker with the components. Once the door is closed, the process starts – quickly, easily, and without any complicated preparation.

Separation
The components are separated automatically. This ensures that the parts enter the testing area individually, which guarantees precise detection and evaluation of each individual component.

Testing
During the free fall, 16 high-resolution cameras capture every component from all angles. Optical defect detection reliably identifies surface defects, dimensional deviations, and shape errors, completely contact-free and independent of component geometry or material.

Counting & Sorting
Immediately after inspection, the components are automatically classified according to the inspection result as OK or NOK (not OK). At the same time, the inspected parts are counted and sorted for complete documentation and efficient further processing.

Process of the stand-alone free-fall testing system

Data analysis and data visualization of the free-fall test

Dimensional accuracy testing
The geometry of each component is checked in real time: 2D images taken from different angles are automatically linked to the stored CAD model. This creates a precise digital image that allows even the smallest deviations in shape and dimensions to be detected immediately.

Surface defects
An AI-supported detection process is used to evaluate surface quality. The system analyzes the texture of the component and identifies even subtle irregularities or deviations. Since the AI is trained exclusively with good parts, the method is particularly robust, quick to implement, and ideal for product portfolios with a wide range of variants.

Analyses, trends, and test reports can be accessed at any time using the autfactory testing software.

Erfolgsaussichten vorab prüfen: Machbarkeitsstudien – Proof of Concept

Before resources are invested in the full implementation, all open questions should be resolved. We test the requirements (components) on our own plant (proof of concept, POC).

Our team of experts has extensive experience and the necessary equipment to carry out feasibility studies. This gives you security. POCs help identify challenges early on so that appropriate action can be taken.