Computed x-ray tomography for analyzing polymer insulators

Computed X-Ray Tomography (CT) is a completely nondestructive technique for visualizing internal features of opaque solid objects and for obtaining digital information on their 3-D geometries and properties. It is useful for a wide range of materials, including rock, bone, ceramic, metal, and soft tissue. X-ray CT differs from conventional medical CAT-scanning in its ability to resolve details as small as a few tens of microns in size. By applying this technique to inspecting electric insulators made with castor oil polymer resins, it was possible to detect voids, defects, and bubbles inside them. This nondestructive technique also allows the determination of the density and composition variations of these insulators, thus making easier quality inspection during their manufacturing processes. In this paper, our results will be described and a discussion of the limitations of this technique as used for these analyses will be presented.