College of Engineering -- University of Wisconsin-Madison

"Bela thinks big. (He) promoted this business and helped locate a group of people to strengthen it and get it off the ground."

A Madison-based international leader in stress analysis and flaw detection products owes much of its success to UW-Madison's Bela I. Sandor, a former engineering mechanics professor now affiliated with the Department of Engineering Physics.

Since the mid-1980s, Sandor and his graduate students have been at the forefront of thermoelastic stress analysis (TSA). This process, explains the professor, subjects steel to "cyclic compression and tension which results in a corresponding slight heating and cooling." Infrared detection equipment is used to "see" stresses as small as 150 pounds per square inch.

Through their work, Sandor's students became familiar with the commercial applications of a recently developed infrared camera used in TSA. As a means of funding their graduate education, they formed a consulting company that dreamed of developing similar equipment. This business experienced mild success, but it soon disbanded as students earned their degrees and moved on.

In 1988, a few remaining students, including Jon Lesniak, formed Stress Photonics Inc., a similar company that this time included Sandor to give the venture permanence. "Bela thinks big," explains president Brad Boyce, one of Sandor's former students who became part of Stress Photonics after spending 15 years in industry. "Bela promoted this business and helped locate a group of people to strengthen it and get it off the ground."

In less than a decade, Stress Photonics has completed more than $1.5 million in research and development projects through the federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, and exceeded $1.25 million in international sales. Much of this success is due to Sandor's numerous contacts throughout industry and government agencies, says Boyce. "Bela's name and reputation have helped us a lot." Stress Photonics' research and development funding has come from such diverse entities as NASA, the Department of Transportation, the U.S. Navy and Air Force, General Electric Co., Pratt & Whitney, the Association of American Railroads, The Boeing Co., John Deere, the Orthopaedic Research Institute and Ford Motor Co.

Bela I. Sandor's numerous industry contacts have enabled tremendous growth for Stress Photonics, a College of Engineering spin-off company. (34K JPG)

Then in 1994, Stress Photonics' DeltaTherm 1000 Stress Analysis System was selected by more than 75 leading scientists to receive the prestigious R&D 100 Award, presented by R&D Magazine. This honor cited the equipment as "one of the most important new technological advances of the year." The DeltaTherm 1000 is used by an eclectic group of customers to verify numerical and analytical models and calculations, measure stress concentration and intensity factors, survey a structure for potential problem sites, and perform design comparisons. For example:

• General Motors is using the technology at two of its facilities to measure stress in automobile parts. By combining the DeltaTherm image results with finite element analysis, engineers receive a valuable two-pronged assessment of the stresses in a part.

• At NASA's Langley Research Center, the DeltaTherm 1000 helped researcher Elliott Cramer image the stress in a door latch assembly. "This work was done to confirm finite element modeling of the stress distribution in that part," he explains.

• And at UW-Madison, Mechanical Engineering Professor Robert E. Rowlands and graduate student Brian Bauman are working in conjunction with the U.S. Forest Products Laboratory to measure stress in metal plate connectors commonly found in wood frame trusses.

Two general areas in which stress detection equipment can be extremely beneficial are bridge evaluation and detecting cracks in aircraft. "About 40 percent of all U.S. highway bridges are classified as structurally deficient," says Boyce. "Additionally, the National Transportation Safety Board has cited metal fatigue as a factor in 81 aircraft accidents since 1981."

Sandor continues to use his array of contacts to help the business prosper. So far the company has outgrown several locations and is now based in a 5,000-square foot facility on Madison's south side. The new suite includes an optics lab, a shop and an expanded production area.

Among the company's 10 employees is a nucleus of UW-Madison graduates. Other College of Engineering students have worked at the lab while still in school. "It's a win-win situation," says senior vice president Lesniak. "We make their education better and they help us out, too."

As Stress Photonics continues to flourish, even Lesniak and Boyce are amazed at how well it is doing. "When we started out, the only concept of what could be done in this field was to enhance the already existing equipment," says Boyce. "But we've proven it could be improved by three orders of magnitude."

--By Paul Bauman--

For further information, please contact:

Brad Boyce, 608/224-1230
bboyce@stressphotonics.com

Copyright 1997 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
Content by perspective@engr.wisc.edu
Markup by webmaster@engr.wisc.edu
Date last modified: Wednesday, 19-Mar-1997 12:00:00 CST
Date created: 19-Mar-1997