ELFER S.r.l. | Leak test instruments

COMPONENTS TESTED IN THE AUTOMOTIVE AREA

Leak

Shock absorbers, motor block, water circuit, oil circuit, high-pressure fuel circuit, collectors, rotating seals, lights, filters, disc brake calipers, water pump, radiator, gearbox, tanks, caps, brake hoses, exhaust pipes, and turbo-compressor. All crude melting

Leak and flow

Battery, braking circuit, carburettor, injectors, pumps, valves

OTHER RANGES OF APPLICATION OF THE LEAK TEST INSTRUMENTS

Foundry

All the unrefined meltings for the automotive industry. Radiators

Medical

Blisters, catheters, connectors, test tubes, needles, nebulizers, pressure regulators, and dialysis systems

Packaging

Various containers, bottles, printer cartridges

Electronics/aerospace

Components with watertight seals, cameras, clocks, connectors, hydraulic components

Electrical household appliances

Irons, dishwashers, lamps, coffee pots, refrigeration freezer circuits, gas meters, heat exchangers, gas faucets, injectors, gas stoves, boilers, water meters

Valves

Connectors, pneumatic valves, pressure reducers, pressure regulators, thermal valves, thermostatic valves, pneumatic valves, hydraulic valves

LEAK TESTS IN THE AUTOMOTIVE INDUSTRY

From the early eighties, the spread of more accurate product quality checks gave rise to the need in the automotive industry to verify the tightness of some components which, if defective, would have caused leakage of liquid (water or oil) in the car, with a serious risk of malfunctions, break-downs or even just inconvenience for the Client and consequent loss of image for the Manufacturer. Components on which leak tests were performed included the most significant mechanical parts, from the engine block to transmissions and brake calipers. The leak test is carried out with dry air, by pressurizing the piece under test after it has been hermetically sealed, and monitoring the possible pressure drop over time.

Semi-automatic leak-test machine	Automatic leak-test machine
Leak-test panel	Tested components

If the time available was very long, the carrying out of the test would not present particular difficulties; however, the time available for the test is on the order of a few seconds,especially on automatic or semi-automatic production lines, this creates a need to have very sensitive instrumentation. Thus, specific instruments were created, mainly composed of a pneumatic part for filling and pressurizing of the part being tested, and an electronic part that allows measurement of the pressure drop during a pre-set time with extremely high accuracy and repetitiveness, in addition to a whole series of additional functions such as settings of test parameters, automatic report of results, data storage, connection to the line PLC and/or upper level calculators.
ELFER Srl, located in Turin, in Fiat’s influential area, quickly became a leader in the production and installation of instruments and complete seal test machines.