Frost & Sullivan has awarded Material-Wave Interactions Laboratories LLC (MWI Lab) the 2015 Global Frost & Sullivan Entrepreneurial Company of the Year Award.
The increased use of composites and advanced materials in the automotive and aerospace industries is creating challenges with respect to material inspection and testing. The MWI NDT technology can test materials across the manufacturing process, from raw materials (raw resins, adhesives, webs, mats) to semi-finished (honeycomb/foam blocks, laminates) and, finally, the finished structures (radomes, canopies, wing structures).
MWI Lab's technology employs Gaussian beam polyrod antennas and electromagnetic linearly polarized resonant loop sensors (E-pods) across a broad microwave (MW) spectrum. These sensors are incorporated into NDT solutions for in-process quality control (QC) or quality assurance (QA) during manufacturing. The company's processes include reel-to-reel scanners, defect detection systems, insertion loss devices, reflection loss devices, in-process uniformity scanners and handheld scanners.
Real-time testing
‘MWI Lab's technology and solutions are likely to become the standard of advanced composites testing for in-process QC during manufacturing and QA for the continual improvement of existing and new composites,’ claimed Frost & Sullivan principal lead Nikhil Jain. ‘No other composite NDT technology currently matches MWI Lab's broad application base or ability to provide real-time testing without damaging the material. [...] Research shows that the production efficiencies of midstream or upstream composite manufacturers that have implemented this solution have more than doubled from 46% to 98%.’
Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service and strategic product development.
This story is reprinted from material from MWI Lab, with editorial changes made by Materials Today. The views expressed in this article do not necessarily represent those of Elsevier.
