Beginnings – 2006
Volvo Construction Equipment AB develops a corporate standard stating geometrical tolerances and allowable defects in welded joints, i.e. weld quality. What separates this new standard STD 181-0004 (hyperlink) from the existing ISO5817 standard is that it has been developed to have a good correlation to fatigue. At this time however, there is no method or system available to inspect these welds according to the requirements set in the Volvo-standard
Automated scanning and quality assurance of welds – 2010
Eric Lindgren and Thomas Stenberg starts their master thesis under the supervision of Zuheir Barsoum to investigate if a commercial vision system could conduct the measurements needed. Eric and Thomas realizes that even though this vision system is capable to acquire the surface texture, it still require hands on involvement from an operator, which adds another source of scatter. To solve this, Eric and Thomas started to write a numerical algorithm which would eliminate the need of hands on adjustments and allow for automated scanning and quality assurance of welds.
2013 – 2014
Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) and Swerea KIMAB starts a collaboration project. Martin Engman, joins the project as a programmer and makes the first conceptual implementation in a robotic welding cell.
A Swedish national research project (FFI-ONWELD) funded by VINNOVA starts between KTH, Swerea KIMAB and a number of industrial partners. A first prototype system is developed.
Nordic Welding Engineering – 2016
Thomas Stenberg defends his doctoral thesis within the quality assessment of welded components subjected to fatigue.
Nordic Welding Engineering AB (NWE) is founded by Eric Lindgren, Thomas Stenberg, Martin Engman and Zuheir Barsoum.
NWE is granted funding from VINNOVA – VINN Verifiering to commercialize the system
NWE is granted funding from Triple Steelix to develop a mobile demonstrator
Investments – 2017
NWE receives an investment from KTH Holding and is selected to STINGs incubate program
NWE receives Swedbank Rivstart and Boost Innovation.