Computed tomography (CT) uses irradiation to produce 3D internal and external representations of scanned objects. The beginnings of CT scanning technology date back to the early 1970s. Although it was originally developed for medical imaging, CT is now used in a wide array of industrial applications including flaw detection, failure analysis, metrology, assembly analysis and reverse engineering.
The word tomography comes from the Greek words tomos (meaning slice) and graphein (meaning to write), and the word literally means “imaging by sections.” A CT scan generates a series of 2D projection images at different rotational angles. These images are reconstructed with computer software to produce a 3D representation of the object that can be manipulated and studied.