Software tools for industrial CT scanning
Unlike conventional measuring methods, such as optical and tactile, CT is less expensive and time consuming, and may provide more accurate results in many occasions. For instance, in the case of complex parts, digitisation of internal geometries may be seriously delayed leading to the loss of data and increased problems during pre-processing, even to the destruction of the part. On the other hand, CT measurements have the potential to speed up and ease part and tool validation of non-destructive testing especially. Aiming at optimising and accelerating the industrial CT scanning, this EC funded project developed a set of software tools that are capable of correlating CT data with CAD models. More specifically, one of the tools allows automatic calculation and visualisation of deviations between the measured CT-scan data and the nominal CAD data slice-by-slice. In this way the user is capable of rapidly analysing results and take effective countermeasures in case of detected problems. With the aid of another tool, data is presented in the form of usable elegant CT-scan measurement reports for subsequent comparisons with nominal data. In addition, a different tool offers automated analysis and reporting of repetitive measurements of a batch of similar products. Based on a Visual Basic platform, this tool is very flexible and uncomplicated to use, while the code may be easily adaptable to a wide spectrum of software platforms and languages. All tools that are specific to first article inspection with CT-scan data and may benefit various industries in terms of great reductions in product development cycles, time to market and associated costs. Industries that may potentially use these tools are the automotive, aerospace and railway industry, the white good and consumer electronic industry as well as the plastic processing industry and metal foundries.
