AI and Digital Twin Driven Closed-Loop Thermal Inspection

The Zero Defects, Zero Waste (ZDZW) project, funded by Horizon Europe programme, proposes to develop digitally enhanced non-destructive inspection solutions to improve production efficiency and support sustainable manufacturing for European factories. One of the aims of Zero Defects, Zero Waste project, is to implement interoperable and decoupled services. Non-destructive inspection systems using thermal images captured by infrared cameras become the most efficient systems which are used to detect the defects and anomalies in the industrial processes such as thermoforming, welding, heat-sealing, chemicals, plastics, etc. In this paper thermoforming process is analyzed in scope of Non-Destructive Thermal Inspection. Consequently, using advanced artificial intelligence techniques and Digital Twin models for in-line monitoring, real-time control of production processes, waste and defects can be reduced in thermoforming production processes in a passive manner without destructivemethods. This paper proposes a closed loop non-destructive inspection solution which is interlinked and interoperable with digital twin.