From X-Ray computed microtomography to 3D printing

Research on wood is sometimes carried out on old, degraded or archaeological wood, which could be challenging to prepare for conventional microscopic observation. In these cases, X-ray computed microtomography (XµCT) has proven to be an indispensable method, as the sample does not need to be cut, dried or otherwise prepared for imaging. XµCT is crucial as valuable samples can remain intact during a scan so that they can be rescanned and then compared or further analysed using other techniques, as XµCT does not alter the sample and in case of the artefacts, not destroying the sample is the most important thing. In addition, microtomography is precise enough to analyse the structure of such samples in detail. A detailed 3D visualisation of the internal structure and a model for 3D printing can be extracted from the acquired data and 3D printed at any scale.