The new AMSY-6 successor of the world wide well known AMSY-5 is presented at the EWGAE conference in Vienna, September 2010. The AMSY-6 features

• USB2.0 high speed interface for fast data transfer and easiest connectivity
• Outperforming processing speed: more than 100.000 hits/s and more than 40 MB/s waveform data can be transferred to HDD, filtered and time sorted
• Feature continuity: more than 1000 sold ASIP-2 dual channel AE-signal processor boards can be used.

In September 2009, Vallen Systeme GmbH (Icking) together with Sinus Messtechnik GmbH (Leipzig), TÜV Nord MPA (Leuna) under Coordination of Fraunhofer Institut for non-destructive testprocedures (Dresden) started a joint research project "KMU Innovativ - Effizienzsteigerung der Rohölverarbeitung durch Verlängerung der Revisionsfristen mittels Schallemissionsmonitoring" with a duration of 24 months.

A new research project "CORFAT" (Cost effective corrosion and fatigue monitoring for transport products) started, with funding under the EC FP7 programme. This project continuous the research started within the ship-corrosion project (2002-2006).

In September at EWGAE conference in Cracow, Hartmut Vallen has been elected as Chairman of EWGAE.

December: Over 750 channels ASIP-2 are already in use world wide.

Vallen Systeme GmbH achieves ISO 9001:2000 re-certification by TÜV-CERT for the development, production and sales of measurement systems.

In Lake Tahoe, USA, the Fellow Award of the AEWG (Acoustic Emission Working Group of USA) has been presented to Jochen Vallen.

Vallen Systeme announced the dual signal processor ASIP-2. Shipping started in May 2007.

Jochen Vallen has been elected as Chairman of the AEWG (Acoustic Emission Working Group of USA).

The EC-funded project "Acoustic Emission applied to mechanically loaded paper" has been successfully finished with a final report (available to those interested on request).

The EC funded project "Detection and discrimination of corrosion attack on ships (crude oil tankers) with acoustic emission (AE)" has been successfully finished and a workshop for those interested has been organized in Vienna, in July. A CD with presentations of this workshop is available on request.

Vallen Systeme GmbH achieves the ATEX Certificate (PDF, 4215 KB) for the quality assurance of production for the category "Electrical equipment and components, Equipment Group II, Category 1, intrinsically safe", according to the Directive 94/9/EC (ATEX Directive). This certification is required for the production of the new family of intrinsically safe products (ISAFE) developed during the last 18 months. The final type certification of ISAFE has been achieved in June 2005.

The German society for nondestructive testing (DGZfP) awarded Hartmut Vallen their badge of honor.

Vallen Systeme GmbH achieves ISO 9001:2000 re-certification by TÜV-CERT for the development, production and sales of measurement systems.

In September the bi-annual EWGAE conference was hold in Berlin, Germany, organized by Hartmut Vallen with the support of DGZfP Berlin. Over 75 presentations were given to the over 130 attendees.

In July, Jochen Vallen has been elected as Vice Chairman of the AEWG (Acoustic Emission Working Group of USA).

In Portland, USA, the Fellow Award of the AEWG (Acoustic Emission Working Group of USA) has been presented to Hartmut Vallen.

In April, after completion of a 300 square meter space extension of our own building, some departments moved into new rooms. After renovation and adaptation of the former offices, the production department has been integrated in the same building. By this, production capacities have been substantially enhanced.

In January a new EC-funded research project started: "Acoustic Emission applied to mechanically loaded Paper" in the framework of the EC program "Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources". Vallen Systeme GmbH is responsible for the development of an optimized sensor and the "real world" compliance and practical implementation of the software routines developed by other project partners.

Vallen Systeme GmbH starts the series production of the AMSY-5 as successor of the AMS4. The AMSY-5 is the latest generation of fully digital top-quality AE-Systems for all applications natively based on Windows 2000/XP. The AMSY-5 provides unparalleled data acquisition speed on latest PC technology and user-friendliness which is well accepted by the international markets. The option to control it by a laptop offers new flexibility.

In November a new EC-funded research project started: "Detection and discrimination of corrosion attack on ships (crude oil tankers) with Acoustic Emission (AE)" in the framework of the specific EC program "Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development" , Vallen Systeme GmbH is responsible for the development of the needed AE-sensor and accessories which has to be certified intrinsically safe according to the ATEX Directive.

In September, Hartmut Vallen has been elected into the Executive Committee of EWGAE (European Working Group on Acoustic Emission) and appointed as the Organizer of the next European Conference in Sept 2004 in Berlin.

In August the Publication Award of the AEWG (Acoustic Emission Working Group of USA) has been cited to Prof. Dr. Takemoto, Dr. Yoshihiro Mizutani and Jochen Vallen for their free AGU-Vallen Wavelet software. The Publication Award was presented during IAES-16 in Tokushima, Japan.

Jochen Vallen has been elected into the Executive Committee of the AEWG (Acoustic Emission Working Group of USA) as Secretary Treasurer.

Vallen Systeme GmbH achieves ISO 9001:2000 re-certification by TÜV-CERT for the development, production and sales of measurement systems.

Hartmut Vallen and Jochen Vallen attend the general Level 3 NDT course and are among the first persons receiving formal EN473 Level-3-Certification in AE in Germany. Additional examinations have been passed to fulfill also the requirements of SNT-TC-1A. Jens Forker, responsible for Marketing and Sales, achieved Level-2-Certification in AE.

Vallen Systeme GmbH is the sole developer and manufacturer of AE-systems with EN 473-Level-3 certified staff.

A three years project, funded partly by the EC under the program "Standards, Measurement and Testing", Contract No. SMT4-CT97-2150 'Multimode scratch testing: Extension of operation modes and update of instruments' is completed. Further project partners are LSGS (France), VITO (Belgium), Teer Coatings (U.K.), JENOPTIK (Germany) BAM (Germany), Uni Montpellier (France), CSEM (Switzerland). Vallen’s contribution is the development of a new AE-module for threshold independent measurement of burst AE. The excellent achievements of this project in using that module makes the advantages of threshold independent measurement of AE for industrial applications very obvious. The module is implemented into the most modern scratch test units offered by the companies Teer Coating and CSEM Instruments.

A variation of that module is offered by Vallen under the product name ASCO-P (Acoustic Signal Conditioner). Another module derived from this development is the LSM-1, a hand held Leak Signal Monitor which enables a test engineer (or a tank owner) to check out the background noise of a storage tank. It allows one to search and solve problems with sources of disturbing noise before starting more extensive work for cabling and sensor installation.
See also:
Product information on ASCO-P
Product information on LSM1

In December, the Vallen AMSY-5 is introduced. This successor of the popular AMSY4 maintains the  user-friendliness and reliability of the previous system generations, but provides unprecedented performance.
The development was based on the feedback of our clients and has converted their demands and requirements into hard- and software: Improved speed for data acquisition, increased PC power, easy combination of multiple systems to form one large system for testing large structures, Windows 2000/XP as operating system and much more. 
See also:
Product information on AMSY-5

In 2000 a three years project, funded partly by the EC under the program Standards, Measurement and Testing, Contract No. SMT4-CT97-2177 'Inspection of Flat Bottomed Storage Tanks by Acoustical methods', is completed. Further project partners are SHELL (The Netherlands), DOW (Germany), ENEL (Italy) and TUEV (Austria). Among other achievements VisualClass™ proofed to be capable of discriminating AE-signals from new and old corrosion. ('New corrosion' means corrosion on a clean surface, old corrosion means corrosion under a scaling layer, which indicates loss of wall thickness).
See also:
Product information on VisualClass™

After a long period of preparation, a first series of AE-courses for level 1, 2 and 3, according to the new EN473 NDT Personnel Certification Standard, in German language, takes place. In collaboration with the German Society of Nondestructive Testing (DGZfP) and colleagues from Germany and Austria, Hartmut Vallen has coordinated the course preparations and performs classroom and laboratory courses.

VisualAE™, the new 32-bit all-in-one data analysis tool for Acoustic Emission, is now in a mature state. After about four years of development VisualAE™ combines conventional statistical analysis displays, waveform analysis, many location algorithms, inline filtering and many unique and powerful analysis tools. VisualAE™ is our third generation of AE analysis software after SinglePlot under RT11 for the PDP 11, MultiPlot under DOS/Windows for PC.
See also:
Product information on VisualAE™

Vallen Systeme achieves ISO 9001 certification by TÜV-CERT for the development, production and sales of measurement systems.

Delivery of the first VisualClass™ software package for pattern recognition. VisualClass™ has been specially designed to cluster and classify waveforms from Acoustic Emission events. It includes strategies for supervised as well as unsupervised learning.
VisualTR™, the waveform analysis package, also is released in 1997. Together, VisualClass™ and VisualTR™, offer completely new possibilities to handle the big amount of waveform data that is acquired during AE acquisition and assist in finding, extracting and pin-pointing important information.
See also:
Product information on VisualClass™
Product information on VisualTR™

German Standardization Organisation (DIN) appointed Hartmut Vallen as German representative in CEN TC138 WG7 (Acoustic Emission).

Delivery of the first AMSY4. FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays) and DSP chips (Digital Signal Processor) as well as SMD technology (Surface Mounted Devices) result in dramatic improvements in performance, a much more compact model and a further reduction in price. The picture shows an AMSY4 with 15 channels. Each channel samples at 10 MHz with a dynamic range of 16 bit. The feature extraction in each channel is done by an FPGA, its program is loaded by the built-in Pentium PC. The AMSY4 is available in configurations for up to 2, 6, 15 and 36 channels.
See also:
Product information on AMSY4

Incorporation of the Vallen Systeme GmbH, due to significant growth in volume of business. Hartmut Vallen is managing director and sole owner.

PC technology replaces the large and expensive PDP 11 and the AMS3 is launched as an upgrade of the AMS2. An important feature of the new AMS3 AE system is its much improved cost effectiveness. It rapidly gains an excellent reputation. By 1996 we have supplied some 100 of these "Mercedes" of AE systems to customers in Europe, the USA and Asia. Several customers own three or more AMS3 systems.

The first delivery of the new system marks the end of the development and trial period of the first fully digital acoustic emission system in the world. Our AMS2 model becomes operational, meeting the most exacting criteria. The model is aimed at a limited customer base. The picture shows one of the very first delivered AMS2 systems equipped with 32 AE channels, 8 parametric channels. Each AE channel has a dynamic range of 12 bit at a sampling rate of 5 MHz and includes a digital signal processor for feature extraction. The system was hosted by a PDP 11 computer, already with user friendly menus, cursor control, color graphics, and context-sensitive on-line help system.

Leading the field, we succeed in moving from analogue technology. We start developing a fully digital acoustic emission measurement system. The AMS2 Model is launched.

One of our customers, whom we supplied with a specially developed measurement system of demonstrated reliability, assigns a special task to Vallen: He requests to supply an acoustic emission measurement system with a higher performance potential than systems currently on the market. We develop the AMS1, which meets all the stipulated requirements.

Hartmut Vallen founds the engineering business, Vallen Systeme. The company focuses on the development of very fast data acquisition systems. Early contracts - frequently exceeding DM 600,000 in value - include supplying measurement and diagnostic apparatus for nuclear fusion research, energy technology and for testing processes. The quality and high performance of the systems lead to rapid increase of the customer base, primarily as a result of recommendations.