FleXCT Service platform.

Using X-ray Computed Tomography (XCT), internal and external characteristics of an object can be visualized in 3D in a non-destructive manner. Medical applications of XCT are well known, but also in other industrial sectors the possible applications of XCT are numerous, such as material characterisation, process and quality control and safety inspection. However, conventional XCT does not penetrate the industry very well, partly because each industrial application requires a specific XCT scan, processing speed and quality, and the XCT equipment available on the market is hardly adapted to these needs. After all, the majority of available CT equipment is very rigid in terms of scan geometry and not cost-efficient. In order to put new, innovative X-ray scanning methods into practice, imec-Visionlab purchased a custom-made X-ray device in 2019: the UniTomXL (Tescan-XRE). The alternative name provided for this device, FleXCT, emphasizes its unprecedented flexibility in terms of possible X-ray geometries for Industrial applications. Moreover, over the past 10 years, imec-Visionlab has developed the ASTRA toolbox with which the recorded X-ray scan can be reconstructed into detailed 3D images. However, in order to quickly respond to industrial XCT requests via an efficient service platform, a high-performance workflow is needed, consisting of 1) FleXCT initialization, 2) FleXCT scanning, 3) 3D image reconstruction, 4) Image visualization and analysis. In this project, the focus will therefore be on the development of such a workflow from customer demand to analysis. For this purpose, we will develop new scanning scripts, seamlessly link the ASTRA toolbox reconstruction algorithms to these scripts, and realize fast visualization and analysis of the reconstructed 3D models via the DragonFly software package (ORS, Canada, www.theobjects.com/dragonfly). Thanks to this new workflow, an efficient service platform will be offered to both academic and industrial partners.

Keywords:X-RAY TOMOGRAPHY, X-RAY IMAGING

Disciplines:Data visualisation and imaging