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Industrial computed tomography: Insights into trends, market development and technological innovations

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Indus­tri­al com­pu­ted tomo­gra­phy (CT) has beco­me a decisi­ve tool in qua­li­ty assu­rance and in the manu­fac­tu­ring pro­cess in various indus­try branches.

The mar­ket for indus­tri­al CT is expe­ri­en­cing signi­fi­cant growth due to tech­no­lo­gi­cal inno­va­tions and the incre­asing inte­gra­ti­on of addi­ti­ve manu­fac­tu­ring methods. This paper pro­vi­des an over­view of the cur­rent trends and future pro­s­pects of this tech­no­lo­gy, inclu­ding ana­ly­sis of mar­ket deve­lo­p­ments, growth fore­casts and the impact of tech­no­lo­gi­cal advan­ces. It high­lights the bene­fits of CT in qua­li­ty assu­rance and the role of spe­ci­fic equip­ment and ser­vice inno­va­tions aimed at impro­ving pro­duct qua­li­ty and opti­mi­zing pro­duc­tion processes.

This artic­le offers a com­pact insight into the signi­fi­can­ce and future poten­ti­al of indus­tri­al com­pu­ted tomo­gra­phy by focu­sing on key aspects.

 

Table of contents 

Current market & forecast for the development of industrial computed tomography

The glo­bal mar­ket for indus­tri­al com­pu­ted tomo­gra­phy (CT) is expe­ri­en­cing signi­fi­cant growth. Mar­ket esti­ma­tes for the years 2022 to 2024 ran­ge from USD 502 mil­li­on to USD 645.3 mil­li­on. This mar­ket is fore­cast to grow to a size of USD 773.45 mil­li­on to USD 1,116.5 mil­li­on bet­ween 2029 and 2030. The com­pound annu­al growth rate (CAGR) is around 7.4% to 9.03% (Grand View Rese­arch, Inc., 2023; Mordor Intel­li­gence, 2024).

The incre­asing use of addi­ti­ve manu­fac­tu­ring tech­ni­ques in various indus­tries such as auto­mo­ti­ve, aero­space, defen­se and elec­tro­nics is dri­ving this deve­lo­p­ment. Addi­ti­ve manu­fac­tu­ring, also known as 3D prin­ting, enables the pro­duc­tion of com­plex designs and struc­tures that are expen­si­ve and dif­fi­cult to pro­du­ce using con­ven­tio­nal methods. Indus­tri­al CT scan­ners test the strength and pro­per­ties of such struc­tures wit­hout dama­ging the pro­duct (Grand View Rese­arch, Inc, 2023).

Advantages of industrial CT 

One of the advan­ta­ges of indus­tri­al CT is the non-des­truc­ti­ve test­ing of com­pon­ents. The­re are a varie­ty of dif­fe­rent CT sys­tems that enable the digi­tiza­ti­on of micro­sco­pi­cal­ly small test spe­ci­mens with high reso­lu­ti­on (nm ran­ge) up to com­pon­ents and com­ple­te sys­tems the size of a vehic­le. Using spe­cia­li­zed eva­lua­ti­on soft­ware, various inspec­tions such as pore ana­ly­sis, defect detec­tion and assem­bly ana­ly­sis can be car­ri­ed out on the basis of CT digi­tiza­ti­on. CT inspec­tion can be used to advan­ta­ge in the deve­lo­p­ment pro­cess and qua­li­ty manage­ment for:

  • fas­ter pro­duct development,
  • increased pro­duct qua­li­ty and thus 
  • a redu­ced risk of pro­duct recalls and
  • a redu­ced reject rate for blo­cked components.

Market

The mar­ket is divi­ded into the devices and ser­vices seg­ments. The equip­ment seg­ment domi­na­tes with a reve­nue share of 51.8% in 2022 and is expec­ted to grow at a CAGR of 7.1% during the fore­cast peri­od (Grand View Rese­arch, Inc, 2023). Key inno­va­ti­on dri­vers here are CT soft­ware deve­lo­p­ments such as ZEISS Auto­ma­ted Defect Detec­tion, which uses AI for auto­ma­ted defect ana­ly­sis (Carl Zeiss Indus­tri­al Metro­lo­gy, LLC., n.d.). The ser­vices seg­ment, for which the hig­her growth rate of 7.7% is expec­ted, com­pri­ses inspec­tion, sup­port, main­ten­an­ce and con­sul­ting ser­vices. Due to the high capi­tal inten­si­ty of CT scan­ners, com­pa­nies are incre­asing­ly out­sour­cing ser­vices to third-par­ty pro­vi­ders (Grand View Rese­arch, Inc, 2023).

Innovations in industrial CT 

Service innovation

Micro­vis­ta GmbH has deve­lo­ped a fle­xi­ble and mobi­le CT sys­tem in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with the EZRT at Fraun­ho­fer IIS. The sys­tem can be easi­ly and quick­ly inte­gra­ted into pro­duc­tion pro­ces­ses and is offe­red as a ren­tal sys­tem for non-des­truc­ti­ve test­ing in pha­ses of increased inspec­tion effort. The inspec­tion pro­cess is ful­ly auto­ma­ted (CT scan, recon­s­truc­tion, eva­lua­ti­on) and is sup­pli­ed with cus­to­mi­zed eva­lua­ti­on soft­ware. This con­cept enables rapid feed­back on pro­duct qua­li­ty direct­ly at the pro­duc­tion site, ther­eby redu­cing the cos­ts and logi­sti­cal effort of the CT inspec­tion. Thanks to the auto­ma­tic, AI-sup­port­ed eva­lua­ti­on, the sys­tem is ide­al­ly sui­ted for series test­ing or series-accom­pany­ing tests (Fraun­ho­fer Insti­tu­te for Inte­gra­ted Cir­cuits IIS, 2023; Micro­vis­ta GmbH, n.d.-b). 

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Device innovations

In 2018, the Fraun­ho­fer Insti­tu­te put the first robot-based CT sys­tem into ope­ra­ti­on at car manu­fac­tu­rer BMW. This tech­no­lo­gi­cal inno­va­ti­on repres­ents a signi­fi­cant advan­ce in indus­tri­al com­pu­ted tomo­gra­phy and has the poten­ti­al to chan­ge the way com­plex com­pon­ents are exami­ned and ana­ly­zed in the auto­mo­ti­ve indus­try (Fraun­ho­fer Insti­tu­te for Inte­gra­ted Cir­cuits IIS, 2018). With this tech­no­lo­gy, which is used in the pilot plant at the BMW Rese­arch and Inno­va­ti­on Cen­ter, four robots can take seve­ral thousand sec­tion­al images of a vehic­le pro­to­ty­pe in the micro­met­re ran­ge. This enables pre­cise three-dimen­sio­nal ana­ly­sis wit­hout having to dis­mant­le the vehic­le (Beut­na­gel, 2018). 

Connection between device and service innovation 

In the case of at-line or in-line sys­tems in the plants of OEMs or sup­pli­ers, the­re may be eva­lua­ti­on bot­t­len­ecks due to a lack of per­son­nel or per­son­nel cost savings, or the­re may be spe­cial eva­lua­ti­on chal­lenges whe­re stan­dard soft­ware rea­ches its limits. This is whe­re pro­vi­ders such as Micro­vis­ta GmbH can help with cus­to­mi­zed auto­ma­ted eva­lua­ti­on via the cloud (Micro­vis­ta GmbH, n.d.-a).

Scanning techniques

Sur­face and cone beam CT domi­na­te the mar­ket. The area beam CT seg­ment had a mar­ket share of 44.1% in 2022 and is expec­ted to achie­ve a CAGR of 7.3%. Cone beam CT is expec­ted to have a hig­her CAGR of 7.9%. Cone beam CT is sui­ta­ble for scan­ning elec­tro­nic com­pon­ents and medi­um-sized cas­tings and offers advan­ta­ges due to shorter scan­ning times (Grand View Rese­arch, Inc, 2023).

Com­pu­ter lami­no­gra­phy is par­ti­cu­lar­ly sui­ta­ble for flat or pla­nar com­pon­ents, e.g. for elec­tro­nic cir­cuit boards, the exami­na­ti­on of rotor blades for heli­c­op­ters and wind tur­bi­nes or flat fiber com­po­si­te com­pon­ents. 12 Due to the ever-incre­asing size of com­pon­ents, the switch to rene­wa­ble ener­gies and the ever-incre­asing demand for elec­tro­nic com­pon­ents, com­pu­ter lami­no­gra­phy is expec­ted to play an important role along­side indus­tri­al CT (Maisl et al., 2010). 

Development in fields of application 

The defect detec­tion and inspec­tion seg­ment, which held a mar­ket share of 25.0% in 2022, will have the hig­hest CAGR of 8.6%. The assem­bly ana­ly­sis seg­ment, incre­asing­ly used in the auto­mo­ti­ve, aero­space and elec­tro­nics indus­tries, is expec­ted to grow at a CAGR of 7.2% (Grand View Rese­arch, Inc, 2023). 

Development by sector 

Demand in the automotive industry for industrial CT 

The auto­mo­ti­ve indus­try domi­na­ted in 2022 with a mar­ket share of 26.6%. A CAGR of 7.8% is expec­ted until 2030. Indus­tri­al CT sys­tems are used in various pha­ses of the pro­duc­tion pro­cess (Grand View Rese­arch, Inc, 2023). 

Demand in the electronics segment for industrial CT 

The elec­tro­nics seg­ment is expec­ted to exhi­bit the fas­test CAGR of 8.5% as CT scan­ning is incre­asing­ly used to exami­ne inter­nal parts in the elec­tro­nics indus­try (Grand View Rese­arch, Inc, 2023). 

Demand in the aerospace sector for industrial CT 

In the aero­space indus­try, the incre­asing demand for pre­cise assess­ments of com­plex parts at high tem­pe­ra­tures has dri­ven the CT busi­ness. CT is used for the exami­na­ti­on of parts such as wel­ded pipes, alu­mi­num cas­tings, and tur­bi­ne blades, con­tri­bu­ting to the growth of the mar­ket (Grand View Rese­arch, Inc, 2023). 

Regional differences in the market 

Asia Paci­fic domi­na­ted the mar­ket in 2022 with a reve­nue share of 33.6% and is expec­ted to regis­ter the fas­test growth rate of 8.2%. North Ame­ri­ca expects a signi­fi­cant CAGR of 7.6%. In Euro­pe, strin­gent safe­ty regu­la­ti­ons and pre­ven­ti­ve main­ten­an­ce of indus­tri­al equip­ment are dri­ving growth, espe­ci­al­ly in the auto­mo­ti­ve and aero­space indus­tries (Grand View Rese­arch, Inc., 2023; Mordor Intel­li­gence, 2024). 

Summary

Indus­tri­al com­pu­ted tomo­gra­phy is beco­ming an indis­pensable tool in various indus­tries, dri­ven by tech­no­lo­gi­cal advan­ces and an incre­asing demand for pre­cise and relia­ble defect detec­tion and qua­li­ty con­trol. Inno­va­tions in the field of com­pu­ted tomo­gra­phy are essen­ti­al­ly addres­sing the chal­lenges posed by a grea­ter varie­ty of scan­ning opti­ons, fas­ter and more fle­xi­ble CT sys­tems and adapt­ed ser­vice models. With the fur­ther deve­lo­p­ment of addi­ti­ve manu­fac­tu­ring tech­ni­ques and the gro­wing need for pre­cise inspec­tion methods, the mar­ket for indus­tri­al CT is expec­ted to con­ti­nue to grow strongly. 

Individual references

Beut­na­gel, W. (2018, July 19). BMW nutzt Com­pu­ter­to­mo­gra­phie zur Fahr­zeug­ana­ly­se. Automotiveit.eu. https://www.automotiveit.eu/technology/bmw-nutzt-computertomographie-zur-fahrzeuganalyse-154.html

Carl Zeiss Indus­tri­al Metro­lo­gy, LLC. (n.d.). ZADD: AI-defect detec­tion for CT inspection​. Zeiss.com. Retrie­ved April 3, 2024, from https://www.zeiss.com/metrology/products/software/zadd.html

Fraun­ho­fer-Insti­tut für Inte­grier­te Schal­tun­gen IIS. (2018, July 31). Fraun­ho­fer EZRT nimmt ers­tes robo­ter­ba­sier­tes CT-Sys­tem beim Auto­mo­bil­her­stel­ler BMW in Betrieb. Fraun­ho­fer-Insti­tut Für Inte­grier­te Schal­tun­gen IIS. https://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/de/pr/2018/20180731_EZRT_RoboCT.html

Fraun­ho­fer-Insti­tut für Inte­grier­te Schal­tun­gen IIS. (2023). Fle­xi­bles mobi­les CT-Sys­tem. Fraun­ho­fer-Insti­tut Für Inte­grier­te Schal­tun­gen IIS. https://www.iis.fraunhofer.de/de/ff/zfp/projekte/flexibles-mobiles-ct-system.html#1

Grand View Rese­arch, Inc. (2023, June). Indus­tri­al Com­pu­ted Tomo­gra­phy Mar­ket Size Report, 2030. Grandviewresearch.com. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/industrial-computed-tomography-market

Maisl, M., Schorr, C., Porsch, F., & Haß­ler, U. (2010). Com­pu­ter­la­mi­no­gra­phie, Grund­la­gen und tech­ni­sche Umset­zung. https://www.ndt.net/article/ctc2010/papers/261.pdf

Micro­vis­ta GmbH. (n.d.-a). CT-Daten­aus­wer­tung | Micro­vis­ta. Micro­vis­ta GmbH. Retrie­ved April 3, 2024, from https://www.microvista.de/industrielle-computertomographie/dienstleistungen/ct-datenauswertung

Micro­vis­ta GmbH. (n.d.-b). Mobi­les CT — SCANEXPRESS — Miet­ba­re Lösung zur ZFP. Mobile-Ct.eu. Retrie­ved April 3, 2024, from https://www.mobile-ct.eu

Mordor Intel­li­gence. (2024). Indus­tri­al CT Scan­ning Mar­ket — Com­pu­ted Tomo­gra­phy — Size, Share & Indus­try Ana­ly­sis. Mordorintelligence.com. https://www.mordorintelligence.com/industry-reports/industrial-computed-tomography-market

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