Almost every conversation about industrial computed tomography starts the same way: someone needs to see inside a part without cutting it open, and wants to know which system to buy. It is the right question, but "which CT scanner is best" has no answer. The useful question is narrower — what are you scanning, how much of it, and what do you need to measure?
We represent four different CT systems, which means we have no single answer to sell you. Here is how we actually think about the choice.
Start with the part, not the scanner
Three things decide the shortlist, roughly in this order:
- How big is the object — and can it be brought to a machine at all?
- What is the smallest feature you must resolve — a void, a crack, a solder joint, a fibre?
- How many parts — one failure investigation a week, or everything coming off a line?
Get those three straight and the field narrows quickly.
The short version
| If you need… | Look at |
|---|---|
| Parts up to 1000 mm long, or inspection at production rate | Lumafield |
| Highest resolution and configurability, small to large parts (to 720 mm) | RX Solutions EasyTom |
| Objects too large or too fixed in place to move | Radalytica RadalyX |
| Small samples, benchtop, high resolution | Neoscan |
| Composites, bonds and delamination — without X-rays at all | XARION laser ultrasound |
Throughput changes everything
The most common mistake is treating CT as a laboratory technique when the real requirement is production inspection. Scanning a handful of samples a week and scanning hundreds of parts off a conveyor are different problems, and a system designed for one is a poor fit for the other.
Lumafield is built for the second case: a conveyor-integrated configuration inspects parts at production rate, with analysis in the cloud so results reach engineers who never touch the scanner. It also takes the longest parts of anything we carry — up to 1000 mm long and 600 mm in diameter.
If your parts are smaller and the question is depth of detail rather than volume of parts, that argument does not apply and you should be looking at the next option.
When resolution and flexibility matter most
RX Solutions builds configurable laboratory systems, and configurability is the point. One instrument can carry two X-ray sources — a microfocus tube for general scanning and a nanofocus tube for the finest detail — and two detectors, a flat panel for coverage plus an sCMOS detector for high-resolution imaging of a small object, or of a region of interest inside a larger one.
The EasyTom line covers three sizes: S for small parts, L for medium, and XL for large objects up to 720 mm. Two variants matter more than people expect. The EasyTom L 450 kV configuration penetrates dense or thick material that defeats a standard microfocus source — often the deciding factor with metal castings. And the metrology series is built for dimensional measurement, where the output is a traceable dimension rather than an image you interpret.
That 720 mm ceiling is the honest dividing line between these two systems. Above it, Lumafield. Below it, the choice is throughput versus configurability.
When the part cannot come to the scanner
Cabinet systems assume you can put the object inside a box. Plenty of the most valuable inspection work fails that assumption — an installed aircraft wing, a large bonded structure, a component already fitted to an assembly.
Radalytica's RadalyX inverts the geometry: a robot arm carries the X-ray source and a photon-counting detector around the object itself. There is no enclosure, so the size limit becomes robot reach rather than chamber volume, and the inspection travels to the part on site. It complements a cabinet system rather than replacing one — for small, high-resolution work a cabinet remains the right tool.
When the samples are small
If everything you scan fits comfortably in your hand — bone, dental specimens, electronics, battery cells, geological cores — a large system is capacity you pay for and never use. Neoscan benchtop micro and nano-CT systems are built for exactly this: small samples at high resolution, in a footprint that sits in the lab rather than in a dedicated room.
When CT is the wrong tool
This is the part vendors usually leave out.
Composites, adhesive bonds and delamination. CT can image them, but it is often the slow and expensive way to answer the question. XARION's laser-excited ultrasound generates an ultrasonic wave inside the part with a pulsed laser and detects it with a membrane-free optical microphone — fully contactless, with no water bath and no coupling gel. For delamination, porosity and disbonds in monolithic and honeycomb composites it is frequently the better answer. It is ultrasound, not X-ray: it produces no CT volume, and it complements the CT systems rather than competing with them.
What a material is made of. CT resolves structure, not composition. If the question is which alloy, what a contaminant is, or how thick a coating is, that is micro-XRF — a different measurement answering a different question.
Machines rather than parts. If you are trying to catch a bearing or gearbox failing before it happens, no imaging system helps. That is continuous acoustic monitoring, not inspection.
A practical way to decide
Specifications rarely settle it. What settles it is scanning your own parts: the geometry, the material and the defect you actually care about, on the systems you are considering. We arrange that in Israel — including installation, training and local service afterwards, which matters more over a system's life than any single specification.
If you would like to talk it through, or send us a part to scan, get in touch. We would rather tell you which of these is right — including when the answer is none of them — than sell you the largest system in the range.