You might be surprised to know cast metal products can be found in 90 percent of manufactured goods and equipment throughout the world. From critical components for aircraft and automobiles to home appliances and surgical equipment, cast metal products play an important role in today’s economy especially in the United States. The U.S. is the world’s largest supplier, shipping $18 billion worth of products annually (according to the Office of Industrial Technologies report, Metal Casting – Industry of the Future).

Thanks to most recent developments, computed tomography (CT) is now an affordable and efficient
technology for non-destructive testing of workpieces made of a vast variety of materials. While digital radiography provides two-dimensional fluoroscopic images, computed tomography typically rotates the object between the X-ray tube and the flat-panel detector 360° and captures several hundred to well over a thousand X-ray images from various angles.

Starting out mainly as a prototyping technology Additive Manufacturing (AM) gained tremendous momentum for  use in industrial applications over the last 5 years. For highly demanding functional parts, laser beam powder bed fusion (LB-PBF) became the most dominant AM technology.

The Zoological Museum in the Center for Natural History at the University of Hamburg is currently running a special exhibition about the tragic phenomenon of disappearing species in the animal kingdom.