Curtiss Wright Nuclear
CT Scanning Supports Additive Manufacturing
Posted:
By: Jesse Garant
Source: JG&A Metrology Center
The Benefits of Industrial CT Scanning in Additive
Manufacturing / Rapid Prototyping

Reverse Engineering in Additive Manufacturing / Rapid
Prototyping

With reverse engineering applications, Industrial CT
(Computed Tomography) is able to capture internal external
part geometry for 3D printing, laser sintering and rapid
prototyping applications. For additive manufacturing
applications the dataset is typically translated to a point
cloud/polygon based file in formats such as STL, WRL, TXT,
PLY, and OBJ. With the point cloud file you can either go
directly to printing or bring it into your CAD suite and
perform modifications to the dataset prior to printing.
Note: All data is exported is only on one level as the
conversion process from RAW to point cloud format, the
density gray scale values are lost.

Internal Inspection in Additive Manufacturing/Rapid
Prototyping

Geometry in a limited production part is occasionally
required to be validated for an integral part of an
assembly. By identifying wall thickness issues ahead of
time in the first printed part, the design or the additive
manufacturing process can be modified to ensure the limited
production run is meeting the intended design parameters.
The second benefit for internal inspection is to quickly
validate the part to the CAD model for internal and
external deviations from the design. For customers
requiring this piece of mind validation on their newly
manufactured part, Industrial CT scan (CAT scan) is the
only non-destructive method for validating the internal
geometry in 3D to the CAD model. As a further benefit,
GD&T part print points and first article inspection (FAI)
reports can also be generated without destroying the part.
The remaining benefit for the industry is to identify
cracks, knit lines, and porosity between the intersections
of resins on multi material printers. Identifying these
areas ahead of time allows for adjustment to machine
parameters prior to the first saleable run.
Mistras Group