Technology Development
| Netlab
operates as a virtual company, subcontracting work packages to reputed laboratories in
Europe and USA. selected on the basis of skills needed for a given
project, thus a "best of class" team is set up for each project.
Over 10 years of Netlab's existence we have established collaboration agreements with numerous laboratories and companies. |
Examples
of selected laboratories and companies:
• BAM (Germany) • Fraunhofer Institutes (Germany) • Technical University of Aachen (Germany) • Battelle Memorial Institute (USA) • SCAIME-Advoptics (France) |
| Examples of technology
developments:
Fiber Optical Sensors and data treatment and interpretation software developed in collaboration with SCAIME SA (France) based on Bragg fiber technology are developed for strain, vibration and temperature monitoring. The data treatment software allows failure population analysis, life time prediction of the monitored component and scheduling of maintenance.
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| Optical fiber strain sensor developed in cooperation with SCAIME-Advoptics (France) | Application of optical fiber vibration and temperature sensing on the TGV Est track | TGV Est train linking Paris with Frankfurt and Stuttgart |
| Condition Monitoring of rotor blades of wind turbines in collaboration with BAM (Federal Materials Research Laboratory, Berlin (Germany), BAM presented the results at the Technical Conference on "Wind Turbine Rotor Blades" in Essen (Haus der Technik) on June 28-29, 2011, the PPT can be downloaded by clicking here. |
 The monitoring system "Advoptics" is based on the Bragg fiber technology. Strain sensors are attached to the inside of the blade, the opto- electronics data treatment unit is placed in the rotating hub. The system allows flap and edge wise monitoring. |
5 MW wind turbine M5000 from Areva |
 Optical fiber strain sensors follow exactly the deformation of the turbine blade as a function of the wind speed respectively the wind load on the blade; in red the wind speed and in dark blue the elongation recorded by the optical fiber strain gauges attached to the inside of the blade |
| Air-coupled Ultrasonic Sensors for inspection of automotive components are being developed in collaboration with Fraunhofer (IZFP) and INOSON for in-line inspection. The inconvenience of the usual water or gel coupling is circumvented by air coupling. Increased air pressure improves the inspection performance. |
Principle of air coupled ultrasonic backscattering, air or gas may be pressurized up to 10 bar in order to increase the energy transfer between the probe and substrate, drawing courtesy IZFP |
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Robot with ultrasonic transducer follows the contours of an Al casting in water bath for detection of defects (gas bubbles, cracks and inclusions), photo courtesy IZFP |