Boost Your Mill’s Uptime with a Unified Eddy Current Testing Platform

"If our test system goes down, the whole line goes down." For tube, bar, and wire producers, this is not an exaggeration. Incorporating inline eddy current testing is essential for maintaining weld quality, meeting customer specifications, and keeping production on schedule. As quality demands increase across automotive, aerospace, energy, and general manufacturing, long-product suppliers must:

• Identify defects earlier and with higher accuracy.
• Meet strict documentation and regulatory requirements.
• Maintain throughput with smaller maintenance teams.
• Reduce scrap and protect weld integrity as materials evolve. 
• Keep aging inspection systems running without long service delays.

A mill can catch issues before they become failures with a successful eddy current test system. When it does not, lines slow, scrap rises, and production costs multiply. This pressure makes reliability and responsiveness more important than ever.

FOERSTER’s acquisition of PRÜFTECHNIK NDT directly addresses these challenges. By combining two industry experts in long-product inspection, we now offer a more resilient eddy current testing portfolio that helps mills avoid downtime and reduce risk. 

If your current system struggles with any of these issues, you’re likely feeling those pain points firsthand: 

• Vibration or tight coil-to-material clearance  
• Weld twist up to 90° (requiring advanced sector coils)  
• Difficulty capturing hot-weld behavior  
• Uncertain coil positioning or inconsistent flaw detection  
• Missed continuous defects without absolute sensor technology 
• Inability to detect ID defects in thicker walls due to limited sensitivity 

These inconvenient challenges directly affect uptime, product quality, and profitability. And solving them is where the partnership creates immediate value.

Unified Expertise for Tube, Bar, and Wire Inspection 

The integration of PRÜFTECHNIK NDT gives long-product manufacturers a stronger, more reliable path to high-quality inspection. Today’s tube, bar, and wire producers cannot afford inconsistent weld monitoring, delayed service support, or equipment that struggles in high-speed or high-temperature environments. With tighter tolerances, rising documentation demands, and higher customer expectations, the mills need eddy current systems they can trust to detect defects early and keep production moving.

The PRÜFTECHNIK NDT EDDYCHEK system has long been a leading solution in tube mills, known for its stable weld seam inspection, reliable detection of weld wander, open seams, incomplete fusion, and ID-related defects. FOERSTER brings decades of proven performance in full-body and surface inspection for bar and wire products. Together, these capabilities create a comprehensive inspection portfolio that improves process control, reduces scrap, and increases confidence across the entire production line.

This merger also strengthens response and service support. With more technicians, more inventory, and deeper combined expertise, customers receive faster help when issues arise. Service delays, long repairs, and unsupported legacy systems become far less disruptive. The result is a more reliable, better-supported inspection environment that helps mills maintain uptime and meet quality expectations without interruption.

The Preferred Solutions for Weld Monitoring and Tube Testing

EDDYCHEK 605/610: Weld Seam and Tube Inspection Built for Mill Conditions

The EDDYCHEK remains the go-to solution for inline tube and weld seam testing. Built for the demanding environment of tube mills, the system offers:

• High-resolution weld seam monitoring for early defect detection
• Sector coil support to accommodate weld twist and seam wander
• Absolute and differential channels for capturing both short and continuous defects
• Hot-zone inspection capability for stable signals, even immediately after welding
• Advanced user guidance for coil positioning and line optimization

The EDDYCHEK is engineered specifically to solve the everyday challenges mills face, from vibration and tight clearances to ID defect detection in thicker walls. With PRÜFTECHNIK NDT’s proven electronics and FOERSTER’s expanded engineering support, the platform delivers stable, repeatable performance on high-speed lines.

DEFECTOMAT DA: Full-Body Eddy Current Testing for Bar and Wire

While EDDYCHEK specializes in tube and weld seam monitoring, the DEFECTOMAT DA complements it by delivering full-body eddy current inspection for bar and wire products. It offers:

• High sensitivity to surface and near-surface defects
• Multichannel architecture for complete coverage on round, square, or profiled products
• Dynamic signal filtering to manage vibration and material variability
• High throughput capability for fast-moving production lines
• Modern electronics and a flexible configuration for diverse applications

The DEFECTOMAT DA strengthens long-product inspection across the entire operation, providing the precise defect detection needed for bar and wire production. Together with EDDYCHEK, it allows manufacturers to standardize on a single, unified ecosystem for both weld seam and full-body testing.

Improving Throughput and Quality 

With FOERSTER and PRÜFTECHNIK NDT technologies now aligned, customers gain:

• A complete one-stop-shop solution for tube, bar, and wire inspection
• Consistent performance across all long-product types
• Simpler integration and maintenance
• Faster service response and stronger application support

This unified approach does more than streamline inspection. It gives mills a stable, future-ready foundation for quality assurance. By combining the proven strengths of EDDYCHEK for weld seam evaluation and DEFECTOMAT DA for full-body testing, manufacturers can standardize on one system that enhances traceability, reduces scrap, and supports continuous process improvement.

The result is a more reliable production environment that minimizes downtime, strengthens quality control, and keeps operations performing with confidence. FOERSTER’s expanded capabilities ensure that mills have the tools, support, and expertise they need to meet today’s demands and prepare for what’s next.