Anton du Plessis

Author's posts

Nov 25

Characterizing sweet potato powders

In this Food Science research project from the University of Venda, sweet potato powders were studied as grown at different sites, in the images below from the Bophelo cultivar, the powder from the Univen site contained more smaller powder particles. Further work is expected and the powder characterization in 3D, as well as density differences …

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Nov 25

Electronic microchip

These images illustrate the ease of inspection of a closed microchip, to see the electronic circuit or wire connections, and to inspect these for possible short circuits or to locate defect regions.  

Nov 25

Vine leaf

Some stunning images and movies of a vine leaf is shown here, with permission from the researchers. The advantage of X-ray CT for this type of analysis is the full three dimensional information, making it possible to identify features within a sample (subsurface), to make volumetric and distance measurements of features, to check connectivity and also …

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Nov 06

SPECIAL OFFER – end of year discount R500 per hour ALL CLIENTS

All commercial clients get academic rates until the end of 2013: R500 per hour, this is the lowest worldwide rate for this technology and we offer the best quality as well. Try us for 3D visualization and measurement of defects in mechanical components, electronic components and much more. Academic clients, come in now to plan …

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Oct 01

Concrete cracking

This example is of a large concrete core taken from a large slab that was found to have cracks. In order to understand the cracking, a CT scan was attempted. These results are not discussed here since the analysis is still ongoing, but the movie and images show the quality and ability to visualize cracks …

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Oct 01

Analyzing a matchstick

This is a simple easy to understand example of what microCT scans can visualize. Everyone understands what a matchstick is composed of – a blob of dense material on top of a wooden stick. The full 3D data set shows inclusions (dense particles) inside the dense blob and the wood structure is visible (wood cells). …

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Oct 01

Quality inspections for dental wax

This example is a dental wax / glue which is purchased in tubes by dentists. The interest is to compare different suppliers with regards to the porosity (bubbles) inside, with lower porosity the consistency of the product is better when pushed out of the tube. The images show some selected examples of the tubes with …

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Sep 30

Porosity of concrete blocks

A range of concrete blocks where scanned for a student project recently. This is a pore size distribution (colour coded size ranges): This is the histogram of void sizes (nr of voids vs volume of voids in mm3):

Jul 26

Drill core analysis using CT and XRF

In this new service to exploration and mining companies, we offer a fast analysis of rock drill core samples using microCT scans to visualize the minerals of interest, based on density and atomic composition differences, and then confirm the composition of different materials of interest using a portable XRF analyzer. This unique combination allows us …

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Jul 26

Test scans from CT training event

During the CAF training initiative, we scanned a couple of objects including an old cellphone to show different electronic components inside, two types of plastics to compare their internal structures, and some stones from a leaching experiment. Here are some of the images and movies from this event. Note this is what you get within …

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