Process Integrated Inspection of Fiber Composite Parts Using Computed Tomography

摘要

Fiber composite parts are often made up of several layers of woven or non-crimp fabrics consisting of glass- or carbon-fibers. For purpose of quality control, non-destructive testing methods have to be applied to find possible defects. Typical defects are pores and voids on the matrix-side and undulations, broken fibers, fiber misplacements, etc on the fiber-side. Until recently system cost and processing speed of a Computed Tomography (CT) system capable of computing three-dimensional (3D) images prevented its widespread use except for special applications, e.g. offline inspection of prototypes in the lab. With the steady advances in processing speed in conjunction with optimized 3D image processing algorithms, it is now possible to integrate a CT system into the process, offering 3D reconstruction and fully automatic defect detection. This is referred to as Inline-CT. In this contribution we show the possible application of an Inline-CT system to the inspection of fiber composite parts. The performance of the system is shown on CT-scans of a CFRP-clip, which is a part used for structure connecting purposes in modern aircrafts.