OHB Digital Connect to develop manipulation system for high-energy CT scanner for Fraunhofer IIS

Mainz/Fürth, February 27, 2025. For decades, computed tomography (CT) has been an essential part of medical diagnostics, providing detailed three-dimensional images of the inside of the body. The advantages of this method are also in high demand for industrial applications: individual components and complex assemblies can be captured in great detail and inspected for wear or material defects without destruction.

To enable this type of analysis for very large structures such as entire vehicles, the Development Center for X-ray Technology at the Fraunhofer IIS is working closely with OHB Digital Connect to realize an XXL gantry CT scanner. The project, known as GiantEye, was launched at the end of February 2025 and is expected to take just under two years to complete.

A similar facility, Gulliver, was built in 2024 for the Technical University of Kaiserslautern-Landau in Rhineland-Palatinate.

Many years of experience in high-precision positioning of extremely heavy structures

OHB Digital Connect is contributing its expertise in the high-precision alignment and positioning of extremely heavy structures, which is based on many years of experience in the construction of antennas and telescopes for astronomical research. This expertise is particularly important for the realization of GiantEye, as the acquisition of high-quality CT scans requires extremely high positioning accuracy of the system's moving components.

Examination procedure for very large objects

The key advantage of the gantry design chosen for GiantEye is that large, elongated objects such as vehicles no longer have to be scanned in a vertical position, but can be inspected in their natural orientation. In the case of GiantEye, objects up to the size of a 20-foot container can be moved through the scanner on a special sled and imaged layer by layer. The result is a highly detailed digital representation of the object.

This means that, for the first time, CT scans of large components and assemblies can be integrated into routine examinations in industrial processes, as the test objects can be scanned without the need for time-consuming preparation. Examples of applications include the production ramp-up of electric vehicles or load tests on very large objects. In addition, there are many other conceivable fields of application, which makes GiantEye a versatile tool for developing tomorrow's products.