Almost every industry has seen explosive growth in additive manufacturing (AM or 3D printing) of metal components, either for prototyping or low to medium volume manufacture of often high value and safety critical parts.

Every business or service today has some form of quality control or quality assurance. With such high market competition, quality has become the market differentiator for almost all products and services.

Standards and regulations rule the aerospace industry. Inspections and reviews are crucial to passenger and flight safety, but compliance with these standards can become time consuming and expensive. 

Two-dimensional and 3D X-ray technologies are among the most useful nondestructive testing methods. They enable the inspection of an object’s internal features without having to disassemble the sample or destroy the part in the process. 

Industrial inspection equipment doesn’t appear in mainstream news on a regular basis. But that’s what happened when Samsung found itself in the unenviable position of determining why its Note 7 smart phones had turned pyrotechnic.

Applications for industrial X-Ray CT—a 3D measurement technique that enables nondestructive inspection of an object’s internal and external features—are growing beyond the confines of the nondestructive testing (NDT) space that CT has occupied since the mid-1990s.

Whether you’re prototyping something new or producing finished products, nondestructive X-ray and CT inspection has unlimited applications and endless benefits for your company.

The X3000 system has just been released by North Star Imaging as an answer to customers needing a compact system with unique capabilities generally available on a larger X-ray or CT system.

The American Society for Nondestructive Testing (ASNT), which facilitates the largest organized society for nondestructive testing professionals, currently lists fourteen viable NDT inspection methods that can be used today.

X-ray computed tomography (CT) is an important industrial tool that enables us to see not only external surfaces but also internal features of an object without cutting or disassembling the sample.