Latest CTS Instrument Enhancements Designed to Meet the Evolving Needs of Manufacturers

With ever increasing pressure on manufacturers to test faster and more efficiently, we want to offer the best possible leak test solutions to our customers. We know you need instruments that will be accurate and reliable, and help you keep up with production goals. We listen to our customers, and we continue to make enhancements to CTS lines of products to meet their evolving needs.

Learn about our latest instrument enhancements and how we continue to innovate to help manufacturers achieve their production goals with the broadest leak test portfolio in the industry.

Test lower leak rates with air-based technologies

Traditionally, manufacturers that needed to test at low leak rates would need to opt for a tracer gas leak test method, which can be more costly and cumbersome on your line. To fill this gap, we’ve pushed the boundaries of air-based leak testing to be able to test at lower leak rates.  

To enable this, we’ve integrated differential pressure decay (DP) technology into more of our instruments, which allows a higher amount of resolution compared to absolute pressure decay.

DP technology has a pressure loss measurement resolution of 0.000001 Dpsi (0.007 DPa), and a leak rate resolution of 0.00005 sccm—10x better than traditional absolute pressure decay. The higher resolution offered by DP technology allows for decreased noise around your acceptance slope making it quicker and easier to identify the difference between a good and bad part, even at lower leak rates, making it a quicker, accurate test method.

For manufacturers that need to test more quickly, hit higher production throughput, and increase repeatability at low leak rates, CTS instruments with DP are a great option for your line. DP is now available in the following CTS instruments: Sentinel MH, Blackbelt, I28, and LPC 528.

Test wider mass flow ranges with standard instrumentation

As a result of the evolving manufacturing industry, we’ve increased the flexibility of our line of mass flow instruments. CTS now offers up to 7 mass flow ranges across the product family, ranging from 0.2 – 10,000 scc/min.

Sentinel MH and LPC 528 have been enhanced to perform mass flow, joining the Sentinel Blackbelt, Blackbelt Pro (multi-channel), and I28. Sentinel MH has long been a popular choice among integrators as a cost-effective, compact leak test option, and we are pleased to now offer this for mass flow applications. The LPC 528 is also now an affordable, powerful mass flow benchtop option for manufacturers and integrators.

This standardization across the product family makes it easier to detect what’s necessary for the flow testing you’re doing in the ranges you need. There is also the option to customize the Sentinel I28, Blackbelt, Blackbelt Pro to additional ranges as needed.

Achieve high production output with enhanced high-speed leak testing

The Sentinel MH has been enhanced with high-speed testing to conduct pressure measurement testing in sub one second intervals (test times < .25 seconds, isolation volume < 1.0 cc). The Sentinel MH provides high-resolution leak test measurements with fast, repeatable results in a compact, modular design that’s easy to integrate into machines. It supports multiple differential pressure and mass flow test types.

Firmware enhancements in the Sentinel MH (with new mass flow option) allows for higher speed of test measurements and identification of good parts and rejected parts, with data refresh every 10 milliseconds.

The enhanced Sentinel MH is the ideal instrument for cost-effective high production throughput leak testing for integrated systems, best suited to low volume testing (i.e., parts in < 20 cc leak rate range).

If you need to test very quickly and need to estimate cycle time production rates, CTS can work with you to test and prove out the capability for your leak rate, part, and quickest cycle time that will meet a certain gage repeatability for your needs.

Access cost-effective benchtop options for manufacturing of smaller part volumes

Not every manufacturer is moving thousands of parts at a station. For those moving smaller part volumes through manual production, we wanted to make an accurate, repeatable leak test more accessible, without having to invest in costly instrumentation. For this, we offer the enhanced LPC 528.

The LPC 528 is a cost-effective, reliable benchtop leak test option, offering flexibility to test different variations of the parts as needed.

Enhancements to the LPC 528 include new mass flow option, tooling control, and independent test or two sequential programs linked together (multi-test capability on one instrument and one test port). For manufacturers doing simple tests on parts such as tubing, which may have multiple tests or two different test pressure specifications, this new ability to link two tests together that can be run in sequence in whichever order you prefer is very helpful. For example, an operator could run a leak test followed by a back pressure blockage or DeltaP blockage test back-to-back on the same instrument, boosting efficiency.

Access cost-effective, repeatable leak testing for large parts

Leak testing large parts presents its particular set of challenges. And with the rise of eMobility and electric vehicles, large volume testing is something more and more manufacturers are needing to accomplish. CTS wants to make it easier for manufacturers to achieve a reliable, repeatable large part leak test, with new enhancements to the Sentinel I28.

The Sentinel I28 is a new cost-effective option for accurately testing large parts. Instrument enhancements include highly increased resolution to allow for low leak rate detection of non-water leaks, and ambient pressure compensation to be able to accommodate for the challenges posed by many large part applications, such as part wall movement affected by atmospheric pressure changes during test in large flexible parts like EV batteries.

Easily optimize and communicate with CTS instruments

We’ve made optimization and communication with instrumentation even easier with CTSnet compatibility spread further across our product line of instruments, now including the Sentinel MH, Blackbelt, I28, and LPC 528.

CTSnet is a free PC software designed to interface with CTS instrumentation, allowing you to connect, configure, and run all your CTS instruments from your laptop or PC. CTSnet allows you to get historical data from instruments, configure and copy programs from one to the next, download data right to your PC, and more.

In addition to EtherNet/IP and other communications, PROFINET is now available for Sentinel MH, Blackbelt, I28, and LPC 528 at no extra cost.

Boost efficiency on your line with a common interface across instruments

Much of CTS’ instruments are built with a common look, feel, and interface, making it easier to standardize instrumentation across your line to streamline instrument training, maintenance, test development, and analysis, boosting overall efficiency on your line.

The common operator interface across CTS instruments means operators can walk up to any instrument type and recognize the interface allowing the operator or maintenance to easily navigate between screens, locate the details they need, troubleshoot a system, use similar dialogue between different technologies, etc.

With the industry’s broadest leak test portfolio, you’ll be sure to find the best instrument for your applications in our family of products, offering various test types and capabilities, including pressure decay, differential pressure decay, mass flow, and occlusion test.

With over 40 years’ commitment to the biggest brands in manufacturing, CTS is dedicated to supporting our customers’ evolving needs by offering the broadest leak test portfolio and the best customer support in the industry. Are you facing problems with leak test on the line? We can help! Contact us to talk with our experts.