The development of equipment for computerised tomography

There are two approaches that can be taken when developing CT equipment. The first is to consider the market and existing expertise and build a machine which it is hoped will be of sufficient flexibility to suit a number of problems and of a price which is attractive enough to be purchased by a number of customers. The second is to consider specific problems and build equipment to fulfil the requirements. The research programme at Harwell called for the identification and investigation of possible applications. It has been necessary to gain an understanding of all the aspects of CT in order to determine what results can realistically be achieved. CT equipment can be broadly divided into three sub-systems. These are: the acquisition hardware, the reconstruction equipment, and the display facilities. These three components are described separately