Making a copy of a memo that the boss wants to be distributed to the entire office is one thing. Making a copy of an object so that the entire office can see the object in 3-d both inside and out is an entirely different thing altogether. This kind of amazing technology is 3d scan services known in the technology world as Industrial CT scanning.
Industrial computed tomography (CT) scanning is basically defined as a computer-aided tomographic process that will use irradiation to produce three-dimensional representations of a scanned object. These 3d scan services will not only show the external side of the scanned object but the internal, as well.
For customers who are in the business of launching new products, gone are the days when costs would skyrocket as a result of models needing to be produced in real time. Costs of the models alone could be sometimes crippling, and that could be the case even if the first model was the product that would end up being the finished one. Now, with industrial CT technology, companies can save thousands if not millions of dollars in the development stages. New product costs, failure analysis costs, and assembly analysis costs can be dramatically reduced.
What happens during industrial CT is quite fascinating. A computerized tomography (CT) takes data from several x-ray images of a structure, puts them through a computer, and converts them into pictures on the computer’s monitor. It is generating a 2-dimentional image of a section through a 3-dimentional object. It is these 3d scan services that enable businesses to see their products in the pre-production stages to see where the faults may lie.
The technology of CT was invented in 1972 by Godfrey Hounsfield, a British engineer. Hounsfield worked for EMI Laboratories in England. His partner in the discovery was Allan Cormack of Tufts University in Massachusetts. Both scientists were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for their discoveries and contributions to science and medicine.
More modern versions of this technology involve feeding projection data from multiple directions into a program where the computer will process them with a tomographic reconstruction program. The CT scanners that exist today come from the basis of those used in the 1970s and 1980s. There are about 6,000 CT scanners that are installed in the United States today and about 30,000 CT scanners that are installed throughout the world.
Lest it appear as though industrial CT technology is becoming outdated, it should be noted that rapid advances in the technology are taking place throughout the world. The most visible advance in technology has to do with how quickly the samples are processed. What once took several hours can now be done in a few minutes. Not only has the speed increased but the amount of detail that can be displayed has also increased, leading to much more accurate products to view.