Advanced open X-ray tube technology: Increased filament lifetime and faster image acquisition
Wunstorf, Germany - April 21, 2010 - The phoenix|x-ray product line of GE Sensing & Inspection Technologies is presenting two innovations to optimize the effectiveness of its reflexion and transmission micro- and nanofocus X-ray tubes. Compared with closed X-ray tubes, which have to be replaced at the end of their lifetime, open tubes offer the advantage of nearly unlimited lifetime. GE´s advanced open tube technology significantly enhances the productivity and reduces the costs of ownership of its high-resolution 2D X-ray inspection and 3D computed tomography systems used in non-destructive testing and 3D metrology.
long-life|filament:
Up to 10 times longer filament life for high emission current CT
Computed tomography performed with high emission currents stress conventional hairpin filaments and reduces their lifetime. To ensure long-term stability and minimize system downtimes due to replacements of filaments, phoenix|x-ray offers its new long-life|filament. It is now available for all phoenix|x-ray 2D inspection and 3D CT systems equipped with reflexion type microfocus X-ray tubes up to 300 kV / 500 W. This new technology leads to an increased filament life up to a factor of 10 compared with conventional filaments. The customer benefits from time and cost effectiveness due to a significant lower frequency of filament replacements especially at high emission current CT scans. Additionally, GE´s long-life|filament increases the reliability in high throughput CT applications because of enhanced long-term stability.
diamond|window:
High output X-ray inspection with 2 times faster image acquisition
At higher applied power for X-ray generation the wider the focal spot has to be in order to prevent the target material from melting. Therefore, inspection of small features within high absorbing materials with traditional transmission micro- or nanofocus tubes is limited either by power (almost no penetration resulting in noisy images or very long image acquisition time) or by resolution (increasing focal spot with power resulting in blurred images). To controvert this, phoenix|x-ray introduces its new CVD diamond|window – for the full range of its transmission X-ray tubes up to 180 kV/20W. Due to its high thermal conductivity, the non-toxic diamond|window allows higher power in a smaller focal spot. This ensures high resolution even at a high output. The customer benefits from as much as 2 times faster image and or CT data acquisition with no degradation in image quality.