What You Never Knew CT Scans Could Do! Find Out Now

We’ve all gone to the doctor’s office and had an X-ray taken. However, what we might not have known is that CT scanners that work through computerized tomography are being used to do so much more than take X-rays! In fact, they’ve been used heavily in the industrial sector to do everything from creating prototypes, construct 3D models, and save businesses on production cost. It’s amazing how quickly this technology has evolved to help us not only in our medical lives, but also in the world of business. Computerized tomography is also used for X-ray inspection in airports to conduct scans for potentially harmful weapons or substances. In essence: this one tool is helping us in many different and positive ways!
What Is Computerized Tomography?
Although the name sounds pretty intimidating, it’s actually just a fancy name for what we know commonly as a CT scan. It’s a process where computers put together multiple X-ray images that are taken from all different positions and angles that comprise a cross-sectioned image. These show a particular part of whatever is being scanned and let the viewer see what’s inside without having to physically cut the object or person. Essentially, you take a 2-D object and create 3-D imaging with the help of technology.
What’s Its History?
Godfrey Hounsfield, a British engineer, and Allan Cormack, an American physicist, were responsible for its development back in 1972. They later received the Nobel Prize for their work. Although CT scans were developed in 1972, it wasn’t until a few years later that they became available for general use. The first clinical ones were installed in 1964 and 1976. Hounsfield and Cormack’s original CT scan took several hours to process the data for one scan and up to a few days to create one image! Today, CT systems can collect four scans in 350 milliseconds and make a matrix image from it in seconds. How’s that for advancing in technology? The first clinical systems were meant to scan just heads, although later whole-body scanning systems were introduced. They became widely available in 1980. Today, around 6,000 CT scanners exist in the country and there are over 30,000 globally.
How Has It Been Used With Greater Effectiveness In Recent Years?
CT scans have branched out far beyond the medical sector. Industrial CT scanning is rapidly evolving. 3D imaging can be created in seconds at high resolutions, which provides the possibility for 3D reverse engineering, metrology, and even more applications in other fields to come to fruition. It’s also helping businesses reduce production inspection costs and saving them in failure analysis costs, from between 25-75%. Modern scans can also focus in on an incredibly small part of an image and deliver precise and clear images — helpful for creating focused analysis of a specific part. Micro CT scans have better 100 times better resolution than the best CAT scan being produced in the medical field.
CT scans are helping us perform better and better in many aspects of our lives. Not only are more lives being saved, but our industries are running more effectively than ever before with these new tools!