Thermographic Inspection of CFRP Metal Hybrid Components

The current development tendency in automotive engineering as well as in aviation exhibits an increased substitution of metal components by carbon fibre reinforced plastic (CFRP) structures. Due to material-specific requirements, not all areas of a metal construction can be replaced by CFRP. Consequently, these regions remain in the CFRP base body as metal joints or reinforcements. Frequently, these hybrid transition areas are involved with an increased quality concern. This research explores the methodological deduction of test specimens which allow an investigation of typical defects based on predefined industrial CFRP machine elements. Thereby, limitations on the relevant thermographic parameters as well as the conceptualisation of the complete referencing process in order to acquire optimal parameter sets are focused within this research. The optimisation through systematic variation and the structured parameter documentation in a database constitute the scope of the prospective research building upon the present paper. By deriving inspection task-specific user guidelines, the predominantly manual thermographic testing process can be considerably accelerated.