Many different devices and products need to be tested before being put to use or out on the market. Yet at the same time, it can be extremely difficult to test these products. In the past, products often had to be taken apart or even destroyed in order to be tested. The same treatment was given to devices that were being inspected for security breaches. Destroying a device for any reason is counter-productive. Even when a device wasn’t destroyed, it did need to be dismantled. This means that the products in question had to be rebuilt, costing a lot of time and energy. As such, NDT testing — or non destructive testing — has become an extremely valuable resource in recent years. NDT services are used commonly in this day and age, but many remain unaware of their value or general use. But how, exactly, are NDT services accomplished? We’ll look into how NDT services are provided, and what their importance is to a variety of different fields. As you’ll quickly discover, x-rays are no longer just meant for medical purposes, and the same goes for CT scanning. From wall thickness analysis to security scanning, you’ll be surprised to discover how all of this works, and how it affects everyday people.
A Brief History Of CT Technology
Often, NDT services are based off of CT scanning. What is CT scanning, and when was it created? Originally, CT scanning was created in 1972 by Godfrey Hounsfield of EMI Laboratories. Hounsfield was British, and accomplished his work alongside the South African Allan Cormack of Tufts University. The two would later be given the Nobel Prize as token of appreciation for their contributions to medicine and science. It took Hounsfield hours to process a single slice of data with his original machine. Even then, it took days for that slice to become a reconstructed image. Machines today can process, in comparison, up to four slices of data in about 350 ms, and reconstruct a 512 x 512 matrix image from millions of data points in less than a second. Despite the technology being created in 1972, the first scanners were not actually installed until between 1974 and 1976. Originally, they were dedicated to head scanning only. Later, whole body imaging systems would be put to use. In 1980, the systems became widely available to the general public. Now, the U.S. has about 6,000 installed CT scanning machines, and there are 30,000 installed worldwide.
How CT Scanning And Digital X-Ray Machines Are Used Today
As previously discussed, CT scanning is no longer used solely for medical purposes. Industrial CT scanning is extremely important in regards to NDT testing. At the same time, progress has to be made as this service is relatively new in comparison to medical CT scanning. It is progressing quickly. A few single slices of data would have taken hours to be processed mere years ago. It’s now possible to reconstruct 3D models with billions of voxels within seconds. This means many new applications are possible, including 3D reverse engineering, rapid prototyping, and 3D metrology, among other things. A variety of different objects and parts can be scanned for things like security breaches and construction flaws. Both CT scanning and digital x-ray scanning have come long way. The size of the part scanned doesn’t matter. Parts as small as .5 mm in length to as large as 660 mm in diameter by 1 meter in length scan be scanned by digital x-ray machines. X-rays can also be taken as quickly as 30 frames per second.
No matter why these services are used, they certainly come in handy. They ensure that we’re as secure as possible, and that parts that need to work properly do. Certainly, people are not aware of how instrumental these services are to our safety. But instrumental they are. Thanks to the advances in industrial scanning, our society is much safer than it would be otherwise.