Many automotive, aerospace and other manufacturers who use CT-scan-data analysis for quality assurance are already frequent users of this tool. Now enhanced with AI, the PIA quickly pinpoints and identifies discrepancies—such as pores and inclusions deep within metal, plastic or composite parts, components or material samples—from early product development stages through final manufacturing.

“This is the first time our tool combines all previous methods into a single, powerful solution, from analysis to reporting,” says Jan Gräser, Product Manager VG Product Line, Manufacturing Intelligence Division. “We’ve completely redesigned the user interface for this feature to make it easier for everyone—from beginners to experts—to employ the PIA to understand their results and conduct even the most complex analyses easily, accurately, and efficiently.”

Key features in the Porosity & Inclusion Analysis:

· Intuitive design: All important settings are immediately visible and summarized at a glance, while advanced options are clearly accessible on separate tabs.

· Efficient workflow: Fewer clicks, more overview, maximum control. For the first time, all porosity/inclusion analysis procedures have been brought together in a single solution. This allows for direct access to the core functions and eliminates the need to switch between different dialogs, saving valuable time.

· Easier navigation: The new preview in the analysis dialog combines all key information and makes navigation easier thanks to the interactive minimap that shows the user’s current position in the analysis window.

Other features in Hexagon’s 2025.3 VG software release:

· Multipart coordinate measurement. This feature simplifies the handling of complex projects by allowing users to view, analyze, and edit measurement plans for multiple parts in one central location. The enhancement includes essential statistics for features directly in the feature list; interactive plotting of different values across all parts for individual features; and functions for directly editing, removing, and transferring features and geometry elements across all parts.

· Create and modify dimensions directly in the 3D view (Image 3). With the “Dimensioning” dialog open, create and adjust dimensioning features by dragging and dropping the measurement lines directly in the 3D view, allowing for easy placement in the correct direction and optimal visibility. Additionally, by holding down the “Alt” key, you can create projected dimensions on a preview plane. This enhancement ensures that all lines remain both visible and adjustable, even when located inside the material.

· Improved deformation field capabilities for optical scans. This significant enhancement is specifically designed for complex morphing of incomplete optical scans. Optical scans can often be challenging in deformation field computation, including issues such as missing parts because of scanner limitations and the need for precise matching, particularly in one-sided scanning scenarios. This improvement allows for more accurate and comprehensive handling of complex optically scanned parts, ensuring precise alignment and analysis even under challenging conditions.

· Enhanced mesh import/export now supports GLB/GLTF, AMF, and 3MF file formats (Image 4). This makes it easier to exchange 3D surface data with other applications. This allows users, for example, to directly import and use mesh data created for additive manufacturing and stored in AMF or 3MF formats as nominal reference data without the need to convert it to an intermediate format—or export colored meshes created from analysis results or extracted from volume objects in GLB format, which can be easily exchanged with other applications such as PowerPoint.

“Our goal with the redesigned Porosity & Inclusion Analysis feature, as well as others in version 2025.3, is to streamline the way our users work with our software, helping them make decisions about design and manufacturing parameters faster and more efficiently,” says Dr. Daniela Handl, General Manager VG, Manufacturing Intelligence Division.

“These robust capabilities will improve workflows and elevate the non-destructive evaluation process for a wide variety of manufacturers who employ 3D CT scanning for quality assurance.”

About Hexagon

Hexagon is the global leader in measurement technologies. We provide the confidence that vital industries rely on to build, navigate, and innovate. From microns to Mars, our solutions ensure productivity, quality, safety, and sustainability in everything from manufacturing and construction to mining and autonomous systems.

Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) has approximately 24,800 employees in 50 countries and net sales of approximately 5.4bn EUR.

3D Infotech’s software platform is designed for seamless integration with Universal Robots’ latest AI Accelerator, enhancing production processes by improving decision-making through computer vision and optimizing motion control with AI driven training models. Built on NVIDIA’s Jetson Orin and PolyScope X, the AI Accelerator delivers a superior customer experience while significantly reducing robot programming time. This allows workers to focus less on development and troubleshooting and more on efficiency and innovation.

As a category creator for Universal Metrology Automation® in 2017, 3D Infotech has led advancements in Universal Machine Learning®, using deep learning algorithms to detect, classify, and quantify visual defects in manufacturing. With over 350 systems deployed—primarily in the aerospace and automotive sectors—3D Infotech is now setting the stage for Adaptive Manufacturing, where robots think and adapt rather than just execute pre-programmed tasks.

The AI Accelerator plays a crucial role in this evolution by simplifying AI deployment, enhancing automation efficiency, and enabling real-time decision-making. With its seamless integration into robotics systems, unmatched computing power, and full ROS2.0 support, the AI Accelerator helps manufacturers transition toward a more autonomous, data-driven production environment.

The AI-driven automated inspection system being showcased at GTC highlights how efficient, precise, and scalable automated quality control can be in modern manufacturing environments. Key features include:

• Universal Path Planning

Optimized movement strategies for efficient and adaptable inspections.

• Deep Learning & Neural Networks

AI-powered recognition of parts, orientation, and location, enabling intelligent adaptation to varying inspection scenarios.

• Automated Decision Making

High-precision measurement and defect detection for enhanced quality control to analyze data, enabling real-time decision-making.

• Instant Visual Feedback

Get real-time inspection insights for faster decision-making and improved quality control.

• AI-Driven Dynamic Collision Avoidance

Real-time obstacle detection using AI-powered cameras to ensure seamless operation.

• Unattended Operation

Fully automated workflows reduce manual intervention and maximize efficiency.

• Statistical Process Control (SPC)

Continuous monitoring and data-driven insights to maintain process stability. Gain deep insights into quality trends and process optimization.

Zsolt Pataki, 3D Infotech’s VP of Innovation highlights that “The Platform at GTC enhances speed, accuracy, and automation, minimizing manual intervention and ensuring real-time inspection. This AI-powered solution boosts security,  performance, and efficiency, setting a new standard for the Metrology industry.”

About 3D Infotech

Founded in Irvine, CA in 2005, 3D Infotech is changing dimensional and visual inspection processes with Universal Metrology Automation® helping manufacturing companies make data-driven decisions in quality control.

About Universal Robots

Universal Robots is a leading robotics company with over 1,000 employees, committed to creating a world where people work with robots, not like robots. Since launching its first collaborative robot in 2008, the company has transformed work globally.

Its collaborative robots help businesses overcome labor shortages, enhance sustainability, and improve work environments. With a unique approach to automation, Universal Robots is enabling companies worldwide to automate with ease.

SAM, also known as Ultrasonic Non-Destructive Testing (NDT), is utilized in industry to identify small defects in products or components during manufacturing and to analyze the specific root cause of a failure when a device fails in the field. The demand for this kind of robust failure detection capability is increasing the technology’s use among manufacturers of consumer, industrial, and military electronic devices.

SAM offers powerful non-invasive, non-destructive imaging and materials analysis for inspecting the internal structures of opaque materials. Depth-specific information can be extracted and applied to create two-and three-dimensional images without time-consuming tomographic scan procedures or costly X-ray equipment. Specialists can analyze SAM images to detect and characterize device flaws such as cracks, delamination, inclusions and voids in bonding interfaces as well as evaluate soldering and other interface connections on PCBs.

Recent advances in SAM facilitate the detection of much smaller defects than previously possible.

“Advanced, phased array SAM systems make it possible to move to a higher level of failure analysis because of the level of detection and precision involved. In the past, detecting a 500-micron defect was the goal; now it is a 50-micron defect. With this type of testing, we can inspect materials and discover flaws that were previously undetected,” said Hari Polu, President of OKOS, a Virginia-based manufacturer of industrial SAM ultrasonic non-destructive testing systems. The company serves the electronics manufacturing, aerospace, and metal/alloy/composite manufacturers, and end-user markets.

When manufacturers take advantage of the higher level of failure detection and analysis, the production yield and overall reliability of electronic devices improve significantly. Projects are expedited and potential points of failure are eliminated in the field.

Because of the significant benefits of utilizing SAM, a growing number of manufacturers are equipping R&D and QA labs with the metrology equipment, as well as integrating it into production lines for 100% inspection.

Semiconductors and Electronics

In the semiconductor and electronics industries, the need for non-destructive failure analysis and reliability testing is accelerating. In these sectors, manufacturing with extreme consistency without defects or impurities is essential. This is the case whether the products are wafers, discrete electronics, or the packaged assemblies used in phones, video games, EV automobile subsystems, or rocket sub-systems.

SAM addresses this need of the semiconductor and electronics industries. The testing is already the industry standard for 100% inspection of semiconductor components to identify defects such as voids, cracks, and the delamination of different layers within microelectronic devices.

Beyond the semiconductor components themselves, today’s electronics products contain various specialty metals, alloys, plastics, and glass components. All semiconductor components need to be enclosed and packaged in consumer usable form factors. As a result, SAM equipment has evolved and is now being used to detect subsurface flaws, dis-bonds, cracks, and other irregularities in these types of materials that constitute the “packaging” of semiconductor components.

Due to the critical nature of many of the components made from these materials, high purity alloys should be highly consistent, with extremely low levels of impurities and contaminants. High purity metals and alloys such as aluminum, zinc, cobalt, copper, titanium, zirconium, molybdenum, magnesium, and stainless steel are the backbone of many industries, from electronics to aerospace, and medical devices.

Scanning Acoustic Microscopy

Scanning acoustic microscopy functions by directing focused sound from a transducer at a small point on a target object. The sound hitting the object is either scattered, absorbed, reflected, or transmitted. By detecting the direction of scattered pulses as well as the “time of flight,” the presence of a boundary or object can be determined as well as its distance.

To produce an image, samples are scanned point by point and line by line. Scanning modes range from single layer views to tray scans and cross-sections. Multi-layer scans can include up to 50 independent layers. Depth-specific information can be extracted and applied to create two-and three-dimensional images without the need for time-consuming tomographic scan procedures or costly X-ray equipment. The images are then analyzed to detect and characterize flaws such as cracks, inclusions, and voids.

Smaller manufacturers and independent testing labs are likely to have a tabletop SAM model that provides a scan envelope of over 300 mm with a maximum scan velocity of 500 mm/s and accuracy and repeatability of +/- 5.0 micron. Software allows using saved data to virtually re-scan, view, and analyze data for simultaneous real-time analysis or post collection review. Often, such tabletop units are used to analyze data for failure analysis, product inspection, quality control, R&D, process validation, as well as to determine product reliability, in process quality control, and vendor qualification.

As requirements rise to accommodate testing for higher levels of production, manufacturers will often utilize a larger system with the capability of high speed inspection. The challenge, however, is to perform this inspection at extremely high throughput with 100% inspection to identify and remove components that do not meet quality requirements. This necessitates more advanced equipment that can simultaneously inspect several layers, often on multiple channels, scanning multiple samples in handling trays in an automated fashion to accelerate the process.

According to Polu, SAM can also be custom designed to be fully integrated into high volume manufacturing systems. Advanced, phased array systems detect minute flaws in specialty metals and alloys for 100% inspection of all materials. Semiconductor fabs now have access to 100% inspection of wafers, panels, and singulated components in trays.

Fortunately, recent advancements in SAM technology have significantly improved throughput speeds and defect detectability. When high throughput is required for 100% inspection, ultra-fast single or dual gantry scanning systems are utilized along with 128 sensors for phased array scanning. Multiple transducers can also be used to simultaneously scan for higher throughput.

“A conventional 5 MHz sensor could take up to 45 minutes to inspect an 8–10-inch square or disc alloy. Today, however, an advanced phased array with 64-128 sensors and innovative software to render the images can reduce inspection time to five minutes, with more granular detection of small impurities or defects,” says Polu.

As important as the physical and mechanical aspects of conducting a scan, the software is critical to improving the resolution and analyzing the information to produce detailed scans.

Multi-axis scan options enable A, B, and C-scans, contour following, off-line analysis, and virtual rescanning for composites, metals, and alloys. This results in highly accurate internal and external inspection for defects and thickness measurement via the inspection software.

Various software modes can be simple and user friendly, advanced for detailed analysis, or automated for production scanning. An off-line analysis mode is also available for virtual scanning.

Polu estimates that OKOS’ software-driven model enables them to drive down the costs of SAM testing while delivering the same quality of inspection results. Consequently, this type of equipment is well within reach of even modest testing labs.

“Every company will eventually move towards a higher level of failure analysis because of the stringent detection and precision requirements today,” says Polu. “The cost advantages and time savings of industrial SAM equipment make this possible.”

With labs in Santa Clara, CA, Phoenix, AZ and Manassas, VA, OKOS offers contract analysis and testing services that meet existing industrial and military standards. The service also provides customers the ability to vet technology and feasibility prior to investing in equipment.

Today, across a range of industries, SAM offers the best value due to the exceptional level of failure analysis detail it provides, compared to conventional methods. As a result, advanced SAM systems are now considered essential tools in R&D and Quality Assurance labs, as well as high speed production lines.