Southampton x-ray imaging to play major role in new national research facility

The UK will position itself as a world leader for lab-based X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) through a £10m investment across five UK research centres including the University of Southampton.

The new National Research Facility (NRF) will provide a unique and diverse shared capability for both academia and industry leading in cutting-edge 3D imaging experiments.

The X-ray CT NRF, to be based within the Henry Royce institute for advanced materials at the University of Manchester, represents a major investment over five years from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).

X-ray Computed Tomography produces 3D images showing internal and external features at microscopic detail, all achieved non-destructively.

The µ-VIS X-ray Imaging Centre at Southampton provides eight lab X-ray CT systems and the expertise of over 40 academic staff from across the University, serving a wide range of imaging needs, including aerospace structures, marine engineering, civil engineering and geotechnics, energy systems and biomedical research.

Professor Ian Sinclair , Professor of Materials Engineering, says: “We’re tremendously excited that Southampton will work as part of this major initiative which will define the UK as a global leader in X-ray CT.

“Within the NRF, we have an excellent opportunity to draw on over 10 years’ experience running one of the UK’s largest XCT scanners, taking a lead for imaging large-scale samples and engineering systems with dimensions in the order of metres, with weights in excess of 100kg.”

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(Image credit: Robinson et al., (2019))