Intelligent 3D Robotic Leak Testing System for the Refrigeration and Air Conditioning Industry

Refrigerators, Heat Pumps or Components: Fully Automated Leak Test in Your Production Line
INFICON has developed the first fully automated 3D robotic leak testing system for your end-of-line inspection. The challenge so far: often there are manufacturing tolerances of +/- 1 cm for the position of solder joints on refrigerators or heat pumps. INFICON‘s solution: intelligent real-time 3D image recognition steers the robot arm precisely to all points to be inspected. The 3D system works at maximum speed and absolutely reliably. The robot arm moves to all relevant solder joints of a refrigerator individually for a static measurement.


4 Components for Your Intelligent Test Station
INFICON provides you with four components for an intelligent 3D robotic leak testing system that complement each other perfectly:
• Ecotec E3000 – the multi-gas leak tester from INFICON.
• I-Guide3D 350 – the intelligent 3D Sensor from INFICON.
• I-Tip – innovative and patented sniffer tip from INFICON.
• Calibration leak – our test leak for fully automated calibration.

The plant engineer only needs to select a suitable robot for the fully automated inspection station. Based on the position data of the 3D image recognition, our industrial PC with 3D software guides the robot arm with the I-Tip sniffer tip to the next inspection point with millimetre precision, always along the shortest and fastest path. Your fully automated inspection station needs no more space than a human inspector. The difference: our 3D robot system works many times faster. Fatigue-free and error-free!


Why 3D Robotic Leak Testing Is Much More Efficient:
• Intelligent 3D recognition of the position of all connection points to be inspected: accurate to the millimetre.
• The scanner software controls the robot arm automatically.
• The software defines the fastest possible route between all inspection points.
• Your 3D robotic leak testing station has the same space requirements as a human inspector.
• The leak testing system works quickly, reliably, and without tiring.
• The I-Tip sniffer tip completely surrounds the pipes and even detects leaks facing away from the sniffer tip.
• Storage of all determined leakage rates for quality assurance - against systematic errors in production.
• The plant engineer only has to program a few steps of the robot, such as home position, approach test leak, change of sniffer tip.


The Future of Refrigerator Leak Testing - Robotic Sniffing