Heat pump probe

Heat pump probe, i.e. Temperature sensors in heat pump applications are out of the comfort zone and have to withstand wind and weather, operate reliably and stably day and night and meet the specification for 15 years.

Each temperature measuring point in the heat pump must be considered and evaluated separately, because each measuring point has its own specific conditions that must be specified precisely. Therefore, a specific sensor design optimized for each application is necessary in order to cover the applications in heat pump heating systems really reliably and with long-term stability.

In order to prove that the heat pump probes really do have the necessary reliability of 15 years of service life, coupled with the required long-term stability in accordance with the given specification, the sensors must undergo comprehensive and extensive qualification programs before they are released for series production.

For this purpose, representative random samples are exposed to various stress and load tests that are so hard and demanding that they significantly exceed the reality that will occur later in the field. By means of appropriate mathematical models, the exact physical conditions that must prevail on each individual test bench during the stress and load tests are precisely calculated, adjusted and monitored in advance, so that the required reliability later in the field can be expected to be at least 15 years.

But that’s not all: if each individual sensor design is qualified for each individual application within the heat pump heating system, i.e. is proven to be outstandingly well suited, then in subsequent series production it must be ensured that each individual sensor manufactured corresponds to the qualified design in every detail, i.e. that it is identical to the proverbial other egg.

This very high demand for reproducibility in series production cannot be achieved with human work steps alone. Rather, all critical work steps, i.e. those important for later reliability and accuracy, must be automated. This ensures the necessary reproducibility in the series production processes and generates the necessary production efficiency in order not to exceed competitive costs. Effective quality assurance in series production, which on the one hand includes a meaningful 100% final inspection and on the other hand regular sampling (In Process Quality Control), which is also destructively tested in the Q laboratory, safeguards all production steps and guarantees our zero-defect quality with a field failure rate <400 ppm.