Advanced Non-Destructive Testing by High Resolution Computed Tomography for 3D analysis of Automotive Components

For a huge variety of inspection tasks, high resolution computed tomography (CT) has become a powerful inspection tool. CT systems are applied in failure analysis as well as in 3D Metrology. Especially for complex automotive components with hidden internal structures CT offers a wide expansion of customary two-dimensional X-ray inspection capabilities. Depending on the sample size and the material, resolutions down to a few micrometers or even below can be achieved. Internal difference in material, density or porosity within a sample can be visualised and data like distances or pore volumes can be measured. Once scanned, the fully three dimensional CT information allows many possibilities for analysis: the non-destructive visualisation of slices, arbitrary sectional views, pseudo-colour representations and 3D measuring. Furthermore the comparison of the volume data with CAD-data (variance analysis, reverse engineering) is possible.