Feature shape inspection of metal parts by matching X-ray projection images with CAD model projections

X-ray computed tomography (CT) provides a three-dimensional (3D) volume image of the scanned object and can be applied for nondestructive inspection of industrial materials. The object surface extracted from the X-ray CT volume is examined by comparing it with the pre-obtained computer-aided design (CAD) mesh model of the scanned object. However, industrial materials often contain heavy metals that significantly attenuate X-rays and cause CT artifacts in CT images, preventing an accurate shape extraction. This study proposes a method that extracts the geometric features of two-dimensional (2D) X-ray projection images and matches them with pre-obtained 3D CAD meshes. The proposed method is based on the principle that most of the geometric features of the object, such as edges, in the X-ray 2D projection images are captured and can be directly compared with CAD meshes. We first extract the features in each of the 2D projection images as X-ray feature projections. Subsequently, CAD mesh contours are projected onto 2D mesh feature projections and matched with the X-ray feature projections. Finally, 3D feature shapes of the CAD mesh are obtained by back-projecting the matching results. The proposed method requires only a small number of projection images, thus reducing computational time while maintaining shape accuracy.