Segmentation-free geometrical verification of additively manufactured components by x-ray computed tomography

Abstract

X-ray computed tomography sets the stage for geometrical verification of additive manufacturing components, thanks to its ability in measuring complex shapes. Being a volume measurement technique, usually segmentation/thresholding is adopted to turn volume to coordinate measurement enabling the use of well-known computational algorithms: this transformation significantly contributes to measurement uncertainty.We propose a segmentation-free approach for geometrical verification of additively manufactured components based on “mutual information”, an information theory concept adopted for the comparison of inhomogeneous data. This is part of a comprehensive model for the design, (additive) manufacturing, and verification of products by an “enriched voxel representation”.