Dear Colleagues,

The steadily increasing demand for a reduction in CO₂ emissions and, thus, for lightweight construction is gaining more and more importance in the industrial production of semi-finished products, components and products. Welding technology is not only a key factor but also a bottleneck for the implementation of lightweight construction concepts (e.g., multi-material design). Innovative welding processes or welding processes that are adapted to these requirements as well as welded joints usually have to be tightly controlled with regard to joining quality, in addition to tightly controlling their resulting mechanical-technological and microstructural properties. In order to avoid time-consuming and, therefore, costly destructive tests that would affect the CO₂ balance in a negative manner, monitoring welding processes and component testing by using non-destructive testing (NDT) methods is of great interest. In addition, certain aspects of Industry 4.0 are gaining relevance and affect both joining technology and NDT. In this context, the combination of NDT data with process data from the welding system, previous production steps or environmental data can be valuable. This Special Issue intends to provide an overview of current developments and research activities in the field of non-destructive characterization of welded joints. This includes both the application of already known NDT concepts to innovative and novel joining processes or material combinations, as well as the development of innovative and novel NDT sensor concepts including data fusion for joint inspection and/or process monitoring.

Dr. Benjamin Strass
Dr. Susann Hausner
Guest Editors

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• non-destructive Testing (NDT)
• process monitoring
• joining quality
• joining
• welding
• microstructure
• mechanical properties