Lumafield
10 second Ultra-Fast CT scan versus 10 hour traditional scan
Last month, Manufacturing Quality covered the launch of Lumafield’s new Ultra-Fast CT technology. Since the announcement, we were given the opportunity to ask Jon Bruner, Head of Marketing at Lumafield, a variety of questions to find out more about the solution. We also discussed the inspiration behind the Ultra-Fast CT technology, what applications the solution excels in, and how the company helps its users deal with data overload.
MQ: During the design phase of the Ultra-Fast X-Ray CT solution, was providing a cheaper CT solution to manufacturers the primary motivation for the launch?
JB: Lumafield was founded to provide accessible CT inspection that helps engineers push the limits of their fields. Ultra-Fast CT brings these capabilities to the production floor with in-line inspection.
Ultra-fast CT is intended to radically lower the cost of CT inspection. Fast scanning saves manufacturers money on the scanner itself (higher throughput means lower cost per part) and on the factory’s time lost to quality issues.
MQ: Throughout the press release, there are plenty of examples relating to how the new solution may aid in battery and electric vehicle manufacturing industries. Are there any other specialist areas where the Ultra-Fast X-Ray CT solution may innovate manufacturing processes?
JB: The battery and EV sectors are a clear application for fast inspection, but so are a variety of other industries. Consumer packaged goods companies are already beginning to adopt the technology to inspect bottles and closures, and we see other applications in fields like medical devices, defence, and optics.
MQ: Aside from inspection speed, where else does the new solution triumph over its competitors?
JB: With Ultra-Fast CT, we’re the first to offer a fully automated in-line inspection solution. Our Battery Analysis Module automates the inspection of all battery types—cylindrical, pouch, and prismatic—across various chemistries, to provide real-time data to detect and resolve issues early. It measures key features like anode-cathode overhang (ACO), detects debris, and analyses wall thickness and defects like delamination. It’s seamlessly integrated into our browser-based Voyager software and is easy to use across R&D and manufacturing. Another feature within Voyager is Uplink which can analyse CT data from any scanner and in combination with Voyager Studies enables long-term trend tracking, making it a highly efficient, versatile quality control solution.
MQ: In the press release for the Ultra-Fast X-Ray CT solution, it says that engineers will receive “unprecedented insight” into the development process. How do you balance providing manufacturers with more data than before, and not overloading them?
JB: Our Voyager analysis software supports a wide variety of both manual and automated inspection processes. Our users tend to conduct some initial exploration manually by using Voyager’s visualisation capabilities, then transition to automated inspection to quantify their findings and make quick decisions and track long-term trends at scale.
MQ: Looking ahead to the future, are there any areas where the solution can be improved or fine-tuned?
JB: We’re excited about the combination of CT and artificial intelligence. CT provides an incredibly rich stream of data for AI analysis. Last year we launched Atlas, our AI co-pilot, and every month we find new ways to use the latest AI breakthroughs to make sense of the data we’re generating.