PEPs CT
PEPs CT is a service platform dedicated to X-ray tomography of materials and their 3D characterisation.
With 15 years of expertise, the platform offers services for tomographic acquisitions at different scales, in-situ (compression) and ex-situ (convective drying) studies, 3D image processing, taylored analyses, and measurements.
Tomographic equipment
Microtomography
Skyscan 1172G - 100 kV, 2-27 μm
Skyscan 1074 - 40 kV, 40 μm
Macrotomography
MacroTom (Custom-made) – 420 kV, 360μm
Image processing and analysis
Aside from the equipment, numerous methods for processing, analysing, and visualising 3D images and structures have been developed.
Application examples
Drying
Several driers are available in the lab, with temperature, air speed, and moisture control. Interrupted drying experiments, coupled with weighing and XRCT (X-ray computed tomography) scanning, provides a comprehensive 4D characterisation of the process.
Below shows a cylindrical 1 cm clay sample during drying. Colours show map on all points of the outer surface of the radius, and thus the heterogeneity in the shrinkage.
Characterisation of porous media
An extensive set of image processing tools have been developed, such as pore analysis methods, comprising segmentation, pore decomposition, identification, and visualisation, and quantification.
Quality control for 3D printing
XRCT scans of 3D printed materials can be compared to the CAD (computer-aided design) models used to create them, which can highlight potential defects and inaccuracies in the printing process. Image registration, segmentation, surface generation, and distance computation are tools at our disposal to perform such comparisons.
