A small void inside a metal casting or a crack hidden inside a weld can compromise a component's performance without leaving any visible signs of damage. The same is true of defective solder joints that appear intact from the outside. For manufacturers, finding such defects before components enter service is essential. But cutting open every part to examine its internal structure isn’t practical. Non-destructive testing (NDT) offers an alternative. Industrial X-ray and computed tomography (CT) allow engineers to examine internal structures without damaging the component.

However, detecting an irregularity is only the beginning. Engineers must also determine its size, location, and shape to evaluate its significance. Advanced image analysis helps turn these observations into measurable findings.

What Is Non-Destructive Testing, and Why Does It Matter?

Non-destructive testing refers to methods used to evaluate materials and manufactured components without permanently altering their condition or compromising their intended use. Unlike destructive methods, such as sectioning a component for microscopic examination or subjecting it to mechanical failure testing, NDT allows manufacturers to assess product quality while preserving the inspected part.

This is especially valuable when inspecting expensive or safety-critical components. Aerospace manufacturers, for example, use NDT to examine castings for internal porosity, while automotive and electronics manufacturers rely on it to inspect structural components and solder joints.

NDT also supports production improvement. By examining recurring defects, manufacturers can investigate their causes, monitor process consistency, and identify opportunities to reduce rejects and waste. Several methods are used in NDT, including ultrasonic testing, magnetic particle testing, and radiographic inspection. Industrial X-ray and CT are especially useful when the inspection requires a detailed examination of hidden structures.

How Industrial X-ray and CT Reveal Hidden Defects

Industrial X-ray inspection directs radiation through a component and captures the transmitted X-rays with a detector. Differences in material thickness, density, and composition produce variations in the resulting two-dimensional image, allowing inspectors to identify internal defects such as voids, cracks, and inclusions.

Identifying and Separating Defects Within Complex CT Data

Locating a defect isn’t the same as understanding it. Engineers still have to isolate individual features before they can be measured and evaluated. Consider a metal casting containing internal porosity. A CT scan may reveal numerous voids distributed throughout the component. To evaluate their significance, engineers must first separate the voids from the surrounding metal and then distinguish individual pores from one another.

These are two distinct segmentation tasks. Semantic segmentation classifies voxels by material or feature type, such as metal or porosity, while instance segmentation assigns each individual pore its own label. This allows engineers to count, measure, and compare defects independently rather than treating all porosity as a single region. Instance segmentation becomes particularly challenging when pores have irregular boundaries or are connected by narrow passages. Even when these regions are correctly classified as porosity, neighbouring pores may be identified as a single object, affecting pore counts and size measurements.

Measuring Defects to Understand Their Size, Shape, and Distribution

Once defects have been isolated, engineers can examine their individual characteristics. For example, two castings may contain similar numbers of pores but differ substantially in their size and distribution. One may contain many small, dispersed voids, while another has a larger cavity concentrated near a critical surface. Quantitative analysis helps engineers distinguish between these conditions by examining the measurable characteristics of individual defects. Dragonfly 3D World supports measurements of segmented structures, including volume, surface area, shape, and spatial relationships.

The 2027 release introduces multi-meshes for full-licence users, allowing disconnected components within a surface mesh to be individually labelled and measured with subvoxel precision. Unlike voxel-based regions of interest, which can produce stepped boundaries, meshes can represent curved surfaces and irregular geometries more precisely.

Multi-mesh analysis in Dragonfly 3D World 2027, showing internal voids before and after individual components are identified and labelled.

Engineers can calculate measurements for individual mesh components, including volume, surface area, sphericity, aspect ratio, and Feret dimensions, and minimum distance to another surface or structure. In porosity analysis, these measurements help characterize individual voids and examine variations across a component. The resulting measurements can be filtered and classified to investigate patterns, such as the distribution of pore sizes or the presence of unusually large defects.

3D World 2027 also introduces Scalar Arrow annotations, allowing engineers to display selected measurements directly alongside features in 2D and 3D views. These findings can then be evaluated against the component's design requirements and applicable inspection criteria.

Comparing CT Scans with CAD Models to Identify Geometric Deviations

Beyond identifying defects, NDT can help verify whether manufactured components match their intended geometry. This is particularly helpful for castings and additively manufactured parts, where internal dimensions can be difficult to inspect using conventional measurement methods.

Consider an additively manufactured component containing an internal channel. Although its exterior may match the original design, the channel could contain geometric deviations introduced during manufacturing. Industrial CT captures the internal geometry, allowing engineers to compare the manufactured component with its nominal CAD model.

Turning Inspection Results into Clear, Shareable Reports

After completing an inspection, engineers need to communicate their findings to the teams responsible for evaluating product quality, as well as customers when required. A porosity analysis, for example, may combine a 3D visualization of the component with measurements of individual voids and annotations highlighting areas of concern. Presenting these findings together helps stakeholders interpret the results, but preparing this documentation often requires transferring data between applications.

3D World 2027 introduces Report Builder to bring analysis and documentation into the same environment. Users can combine annotated screenshots, measurement tables, histograms, and other results into structured reports.

3D World 2027 Report Builder allows users to compile inspection findings, measurements, and visualizations into structured reports.

Reports can be exported in PDF and HTML formats. Full-license users also have access to additional customization options, including Word export and embedded 3D surface models. For situations where stakeholders need to examine the data interactively, the free Dragonfly Session Viewer provides another way to share results.

Recipients can open compatible session and object files exported from a fully licensed version of Dragonfly 3D World 2027.1 or later and explore the data in 2D and 3D without requiring their own full software license. This allows engineers to share more than static screenshots while preserving the original analysis.

Getting More from Non-Destructive Testing with Advanced Image Analysis

Industrial X-ray and CT make it possible to inspect internal structures without damaging components, but the value of an inspection depends on how effectively its findings can be analyzed and applied. From identifying individual defects to verifying manufactured geometry, advanced image analysis helps engineers move beyond visual observations to measurable results.

3D World 2027 brings these analysis capabilities together, helping engineers examine defects in greater detail, evaluate component geometry, and communicate their findings within a connected workflow. By connecting defect detection with detailed analysis, engineers can make better use of their CT data throughout the inspection process.