An Inside Look at CT Scanning

Josh Schradin, one of the 3D Scanning specialists at Exact Metrology’s Cincinnati facility, recently completed a CT Scanning project involving aluminum castings measuring approximately 12 inches x 6 inches x 6 inches and weighing 10 to 15 pounds.

The company’s new Metrology Grade GE v|tome|x 300 CT Scanner, with Nanofocus Tube (180kV/15 W) and Microfocus Tube (300kV/500W), is equipped to “look inside” aluminum to a wall thickness or total amount of material of six to seven inches, or steel to a wall thickness or total amount of material of one inch.

For this particular job, which represents the first use of CT scanning for metrology in America, the client was interested in wall thickness inspection as well as porosity and void analysis. The blue paint visible in some of the images was applied by the customer to indicate stress areas where leaking or breaking was suspected.

Schradin performed three stacked scans, each taking only about 30 minutes, to capture the entire casting. The result of the scans revealed the voids (legitimate holes) and highlighted the most serious problem areas in red-to-pink shadings.

In addition to offering the only method to get 3D views inside a part, another primary benefit of the Exact Metrology CT scanning is the true dimensional data provided in a non-destructive test manner, i.e. without cutting up or otherwise destroying the test object.

The workpiece (casting) was rotated 360 degrees in the x-ray beam’s path, with multiple readings from various angles being taken. Once the CT grey scale images were converted into voxel-based 3D point clouds, Schradin was able to generate a CAD-to-Part comparison for the customer.

If interested parties have a need for Internal Defect Analysis/3D Quantitative Porosity Analysis, Materials Structure Analysis or Assembly Control, CT Scanning (Industrial X-ray), Exact Metrology invites inquiries for immediate assistance.

For more information, visit https://www.exactmetrology.com.