Application of X-ray Tomography in non-destructive testing of fibre reinforced plastics

Abstract Medical X-ray tomography has been used for non-destructive evaluation (NDE) of various types of polymeric products. Composites, carbon-graphites, fibre-reinforced aluminium, vulcanized rubbers and thermoplastics have been carefully examined in order to detect flaws, pores, voids and other imperfections in the materials. There is some evidence that medical X-ray tomography can be a very sensitive instrument for registration of small density variations in polymers. Experiments using this equipment performed at Skega AB and the Industrial Development Centre (1), (2) on vulcanization of natural rubber with dicumyl peroxide show that it is possible to detect non-destructively differences in density of about 2–3 mg/cm3.