The iNSIde View

Have you ever wondered about how modern science in today’s industries safeguard our lives? Let’s take a closer look at nondestructive testing and how it aids in that process by using industrial digital X-ray scanning for early detection to gauge a parts quality and integrity.

A recent and growing trend in the Industrial X-ray and Computed Tomography (CT) marketplace is a Dual Tube X-ray/CT System; a system which integrates both a Microfocus and Minifocus tube in the same cabinet. Dual Tube systems can scan a broader variety of products, ranging from small parts requiring high resolution all the way up to large, high-density samples.

With the advances in CT, comes the opportunity to perform very high-speed CT scans of some products. The CT scan can quickly provide a 3D view of all indications as well as their location within a product. With a 3D data set, automatic software routines can be applied with true 3D acceptance criteria applied to assisted and automatic defect recognition (ADR) routines.

Additive manufacturing (AM), sometimes referred to as 3D printing, is believed to be one of the greatest opportunities of our era and has the potential to completely change many business landscapes in the coming years and decades. There are still constraints and challenges in AM that need to be tackled by the combined efforts from scientists, engineers, and decision makers. During this process, with the help of X-ray imaging products and expertise...

Computed tomography used in reverse engineering saves time and enables easy manipulation of data for analyzing and testing a wide range of components

Setting up a computed tomography scan can be a complicated task when trying to optimize defect detectability. There are many parameters that can be adjusted, and many of them have a direct or inverse relationship with other parameters for your scan. Optimizing these parameters can frequently be a process of trial and error, but if you consider the following you can help reduce some of the time spent optimizing your technique. The first thing to consider is the size of the defects and or features that you would like to image. This will have a very large impact on the technique that you use. Ideally you will…

Industrial Micro-Computed Tomography for archaeologists, arts experts, museums and more.  A very powerful and non-destructive technique to examine the inside of an object in 3 dimensions.The increase in capabilities of CT has led to industrial CT scanners being used more often and in more ways than ever before.Within the different worldwide NSI Inspection Service labs, we have seen a tremendous growth of CT scanning requests coming from various industries…

Rapidly expanding into production manufacturing, additive manufacturing (AM) has gained incredible interest in all industry facets. From aerospace applications to simple one off consumer home builds, this technology has immense versatility and use. In additive manufacturing, objects are built by adding layer upon layer of material. With all of these materials in use and knowing that many of these components will be created for critical end use applications in aerospace, medical, or automotive industries to name a few. The challenge becomes; how does the manufacturer inspect these products to ensure safety and…

You may be wondering what 4D Computed Tomography (CT) is and how does it differ from 3D CT? With 3D CT you will generate a 3D volume of your sample that you are able to rotate, slice through it and adjust your histogram. 4D CT will give you the same benefits as 3D CT, but with the added bonus of motion and time. Sample motion can be captured by either two different scanning techniques, static or dynamic.Static 4D CTStatic 4D CT is the method of creating 4D CT by acquiring multiple CT scans. This is a lot like stop motion animation where a scene is captured and then slight movements…

Standard cone beam scanning is sufficient for many applications, but what about the applications where you cannot fit the part in a single detectors view? Physical size of a sample can be a limitation when trying to achieve a given resolution, or you may be dealing with artifact issues. All of these limitations are the reason that NSI has developed advanced scanning styles to overcome issues you may run into when a challenging application comes in.Vortex scanning is a commonly used scanning style by our NSI experts when a sample is very tall in one direction, such as a baseball bat. When looking for measurement…