Round 6 Cont. Development and Application of Certification Metrology for Automated Software-based Spatial Target Characterisation

Aletheia Imaging Solutions Ltd是曼彻斯特大学的一家工业计量公司，正在将尖端技术商业化，为航空航天、汽车、国防、医疗、核和半导体行业的增材制造（AM）开辟新的可能性。AM是一种强大的新型制造方法，能够以显著更低的成本生产具有比传统方法所能实现的更大几何复杂度的部件。AM面临着广泛采用的主要障碍，这是由于在制造过程中可能会随机引入AM生产的组件中的缺陷。这些缺陷可能导致组件失效，使AM不适合生产使命关键部件。X射线计算机断层扫描（CT）是一种非破坏性成像模式，允许AM组件检查内部缺陷，从而允许验证用于使命关键应用的部件的完整性。Aletheia提供了一个正在申请专利的3D校准目标和自动化软件解决方案，有助于确定X射线CT采集的数据集的空间分辨率、测量误差和测量置信度。Aletheia的技术使X射线CT成像系统的性能得到验证，允许将X射线CT扫描的测量结果应用于真实的部件，包括增材制造部件。在这个A4I资助的项目中，Aletheia将与国家物理实验室（NPL）合作以及广泛的仪器和专业知识，以开发一个认证程序，使3D上的特征尺寸校准目标本身需要验证。为了使3D校准目标返回X射线CT系统的可测量性能的精确测量，重要的是准确地知道校准目标上的特征的尺寸。这笔赠款将资助NPL的专家探索各种测量技术的使用，包括坐标测量机（CMM），光学显微镜和扫描电子显微镜（SEM），用于测量Aletheia的3D校准目标的特征尺寸。NPL还将协助Aletheia实现这些测量程序的自动化，使开发的认证方法能够大规模应用于Aletheia的大量设备。Aletheia还将开展工作，将认证期间获得的测量结果整合到Aletheia的自动分析软件中，并调整方法，使其符合现有的ASTM、ISO和ASTM X射线CT标准。

Aletheia Imaging Solutions Ltd is an industrial metrology spin-out from The University of Manchester and is commercialising cutting edge technology that is opening up new possibilities for the use of additive manufacturing (AM) in the aerospace, automotive, defence, medical, nuclear and semiconductor industries.AM is a powerful novel manufacturing method, capable of producing components with far greater geometric complexities than could be realised with traditional methods for significantly lower cost. AM faces a major barrier to its widespread adoption caused by defects that can be randomly introduced into components produced by AM in the manufacturing process. These defects can cause a component to fail, rendering AM unsuitable for the production of mission critical parts.X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) is a non-destructive imaging modality that allows AM components to be inspected for internal defects, thereby permitting the integrity of parts intended for mission critical applications to be verified. Aletheia offers a patent pending 3D calibration target and automated software solution that facilitates the determination of spatial resolution, measurement errors and measurement confidence of datasets acquired by X-ray CT. Aletheia's technology enables the performance of X-ray CT imaging systems to be validated, allowing for the measurements taken from X-ray CT scans to be applied to real components, including AM parts.In this A4I funded project, Aletheia will work with the National Physical Laboratory (NPL) and the extensive instrumentation and expertise available there to develop a certification routine that will allow the feature dimensions on the 3D calibration targets themselves to be validated. In order for the 3D calibration target to return precise measurements of the metrological performance of an X-ray CT system, it is important that the dimensions of features on the calibration targets are known accurately. This grant will fund experts at NPL to explore the use of various measurement techniques, including coordinate measurement machine (CMM), optical microscopy and scanning electron microscopy (SEM), for the measurement of feature dimensions on Aletheia's 3D calibration targets. NPL will also assist Aletheia in automating these measurement routines, enabling the developed certification method to be applied at scale to large volumes of Aletheia's devices. Work will also be carried out by Aletheia to integrate the measurements obtained during certification into Aletheia's automated analysis software and to adapt the methodology such that it is consistent with existing ASTM, ISO and VDI standards in X-ray CT.