New manufacturing processes such as additive manufacturing (AM) or selective laser-induced etching (SLE) produce complex shaped parts with internal structures. Precisely manufactured and precisely fitting assemblies, as well as the corresponding measurement technology, are crucial for innovative and sustainable products and production trimmed to zero defect and zero waste. production. In this context, dimensional computed tomography (CT) is becoming increasingly widespread in metrology and is constantly finding new fields of application.
Customers from the microtechnology require measurement uncertainties (MU) for computed tomography measurements below 1 µm (e.g. bearing jewels for watches, fiber optic connectors, small internal threads). The current method for MU estimation overestimates these. Additionally, the CT has only so far been validated for nanomaterials, which means that multi-material measurements (e.g. multi-layer plastics, composite connectors, watch cases, particle measurements in matrices) cannot be carried out. Simulation-based MU estimation is not automated and very inefficient.
With the existing CT system, there is great potential to reduce measurement uncertainties without further investment in hardware, while at the same time expanding the measurement options. This can be achieved through software corrections and improved, simulation-based measurement uncertainty estimation. Both are based on software development, implementation and validation.