<title>CT-assisted agile manufacturing</title>

Abstract

ABSTRACT The next century will witness at least two great revolutions in the way goods are produced. First, workers will use themedium of virtual reality in all aspects of marketing, research, development, prototyping, manufacturing, sales and service.Second, market forces will drive manufacturing towards small-lot production andjust-in-time delivery. Already, we can discernthe merging of these megatrends into what some are calling agile manufacturing. Under this new paradigm, parts andprocesses will be designed and engineered within the mind of a computer, tooled and manufactured by the offspring of today'srapid prototyping equipment, and evaluated for performance and reliability by advanced nondestructive evaluation (NDE)techniques and sophisticated computational models. Computed tomography (CT) is the premier example of an NDE methodsuitable for future agile manufacturing activities. It is the only modality that provides convenient access to the full suite ofengineering data that users will need to avail themselves of computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing(CAM) and computer-aided engineering (CAE) capabilities, as well as newly emerging reverse engineering, rapid prototypingand solid freeform fabrication technologies. As such, CT is assured a central, utilitarian role in future industrial operations.An overview of this exciting future for industrial CT is presented.Keywords : computed tomography (CT), computer-aided design (CAD), computer-aided manufacturing (CAM), computer-aided engineering (CAB), reverse engineering, rapid prototyping, solid freeform fabrication, agile manufacturing