Fast tomography system inspects parts in seconds

A group of European companies working under the umbrella of Minalogic (Grenoble, France) claim to have developed a rapid x-ray tomography system that can inspect parts on a production line.

While x-ray computed tomography, or CT scanning, has been widely used for years in the medical field, it is still rarely employed in manufacturing because of the slowness of the image-acquisition and reconstruction processes and the low attainable resolution.

But thanks to the efforts of engineers working on the three-year, 8.5 million Euro ($11 million) Delpix project, the time required to inspect products has been shrunk from several minutes to only a few seconds, making the system a valuable tool for industrial quality control.

The outcomes of the Delpix project resulted in the development of a new generation of x-ray flat-panel detectors, new software for synchronized, real-time 3-D image reconstruction, and software for the automated processing of the 3-D data, enabling the automatic detection of defects in inspected items.

Partners in the project include Thales and Trixell, CyXplus, Digisens and Noesis (SMEs), and INP Grenoble and INSA Lyon.

-- by Dave Wilson, Senior Editor, Vision Systems Design