Artificial intelligence in quality monitoring - Tough nuts, cracked in a smart way

Welding, printing, crushing concrete: A team from the Empa lab for Advanced Materials Processing, Thun/Switzerland, monitors noisy processes with the help of artificial intelligence, together with their partner Selfrag AG from Kerzers near Bern. This company manufactures high-voltage generators, which can pre-weaken or even break concrete using lightning discharges. In contrast to a sledgehammer, which yields sharp-edged lumps of concrete with split pebbles, this method is able to break down concrete into its basic components of gravel, sand and cement.