On 7 April 2025, the DGZfP working group Düsseldorf came to Wuppertal for an excursion, which was also attended by the Dortmund and Siegen working groups. The occasion and focus of the event was the presentation of an innovative, 25-metre-long phased array inspection portal, which will soon be delivered to a customer in China.

The evening began with opening words of welcome from DGZfP working group leader Dr. Peter Mikitisin and DGZfP board member Dr. Dirk Treppmann. This was followed by a short speech by the host Dr. Wolfram Deutsch and KARL DEUTSCH Sales Manager Dr. Andreas Meissner. Around 70 participants accepted the invitation to the excursion that evening, including members of the working groups, KARL DEUTSCH staff and almost the entire fourth generation of the Deutsch family.

Division Manager Jörn Bolten then gave the audience a comprehensive presentation of the new phased array inspection portal. This system was designed for the quality control of seamless tubes in order to fulfil the most demanding requirements in terms of volume and surface inspection. Virtually continuous scanning enables the reliable detection of angular defects in an angle range of 0 – +/-22°, which means that the system achieves a particularly high POD (probability of detection). The high speed should also be emphasised: Due to the probe holders sealed with membranes, a reduction of the coupling time to about 1 second (compared to 7 – 8 seconds) could be implemented. In addition, thanks to the use of fast, fully parallel PAUT electronics, pipes of 12 metres in length can be tested in around 2 minutes. Afterwards, Jörn Bolten noted with satisfaction the great interest shown by the DGZfP audience in the project – comparable systems are now to be sold with a focus on the international market.

After the presentation, visitors were able to view further stations with products and innovations from KARL DEUTSCH on the premises of works 2: In addition to the familiar portable test gauges, probes and chemical testing equipment, scanner applications, an assembly of the ECHOGRAPH 1170 with an immersion tank and finally the latest MT system in conjunction with the artificial intelligence CRACKVIEW AI were presented.

The evening came to a close at around 9 p.m. after further formal and informal discussions between the catering. We would like to thank everyone for coming and visiting us in Wuppertal!

This article was published in the DGZfP magazine (issue July 2025). You can find the full magazine on the DGZfP website (link in German).