VOLUMETRIC IMAGING AND REPLICATION OF PHYSICAL OBJECTS

RESEARCHERS ARE DESIGNING, IMPLEMENTING, AND TESTING THE FEASIBILITY OF A SOFTWARE MODULE TO TRANSLATE SPIRAL CT SCAN DATASETS OF DISCRETE OBJECTS INTO SOLID MATHEMATICAL MODELS (BOUNDARY REPRESENTATION-GEOMOD IN SDRC I-DEAS). THIS PROVES THE CONCEPT AND DEMONSTRTES THE FASIBILITY OF DIRECT INPUT FROM DISCRETE OBJECTS (AND OBJECT ASSEMBLIES) INTO A STATE-OF-THE-ART CAD/CAM/CAE SYSTEM. THE PROCESS IS AUTOMATED AND PROVES THE EQUIVALENCE OF MATHEMATICAL MODELS, REPLICA OBJECTS (CRETED WITH STEREOLITHOGRPHY FROM THE MATHEMATICAL REPRESENTATIONS), AND ORIGINAL OBJECTS. SPIRAL CT SCANNING IS ADVANTAGEOUS FOR OBJECT SAMPLING, WITH REDUCED SCAN TIME AND SUPERIOR VOLUMETRIC DATASET QUALITY. THESE DATASETS ARE AMENABLE TO GEOMETRIC MODELING AND RAPID PROTOTYPE MANUFACTURING. THE FEASIBILITY OF SPIRAL CT FOR IMAGING OBJECT ASSEMBLIES IS DEMONSTRATED USING PHANTOM TEST FIXTURES. THE IMAGES ARE AUTOMATICALLY ANALYZED USING A SPECIALLY DESIGNED SOFTWARE SYSTEM. METHODS FOR CONVERTING VOXEL DATASETS TO SOLID MODELS AND FINALLY INTO STEREOLITHOGRAPHY FORMAT ARE BEING DEVELOPED AND TESTED. THE SOLID MODELS ARE COMPARED WITH THE ORIGINAL OBJECTS AND THE ERRORS QUANTIFIED. THE FLEXIBILITY AND DATA QUALITY OF OBJECT MODELING BY SPIRAL CT PROVES ADEQUATE FOR CUSTOM MANUFACTURING APPLICATIONS.