Head photo: FLIR Paderborn3 !with caption! Active thermography from a Resistance Spot Welding (RSW) specimen with flash-light in pulse-thermography mode. Source: LWF   Industries like automobile, aircraft and railway manufacturing are increasingly using new composite materials like carbon. Although these materials hold many benefits for the design and production of these vehicles (high performance and light weight to name a few), they also come with new challenges in terms of manufacturing, inspection and maintenance. At the Laboratory for Materials and Joining Technology (LWF), part of the University of Paderborn in Germany, researchers particularly focus on the development of joining techniques for composite materials. In their search for the most durable and energy-efficient materials, they use the power of thermal imaging cameras from FLIR Systems to test novel joining techniques.