For this year's first meetings of the Computer Tomography and Digital Radiography subcommittees, the German Society for Non-Destructive Testing (DGZfP) invited participants to YXLON International in Hamburg on 5 and 6 June. Dr.-Ing. Frank Herold, Technology Expert for CT at YXLON, is deputy head of the Computer Tomography subcommittee and Dr.-Ing. Klaus Bavendiek, Director Imaging Development at YXLON, is deputy head of the Digital Radiography subcommittee. Both subcommittees belong to the Radiographic Examination expert committee, whose deputy chairman is Dr.-Ing. Thomas Wenzel, also from YXLON and the technology scout for the entire Swiss Comet Group.

In addition to the general and organisational points of the conference and discussion of the status of current projects, the host had ample opportunity to present new developments and research results to around 30 guests during factory tours and demonstrations on the latest X-ray and CT systems. Among other things, ASTM E1695 image quality testing with YXLON's open-source software was presented to the CT subcommittee, and the current project on focal-spot size determination in the micro and nano focus range with the HiCo mask compared to the JIMA mask was demonstrated and intensively discussed by the experts in both committees.

Just as YXLON's history goes right back to the discovery of X-rays by W.C. Röntgen and the development of the first X-ray tube by C.H.F. Müller, the company has also been closely involved with the DGZfP from the very beginning. When the "Gesellschaft zur Förderung Zerstörungsfreier Prüfverfahren" was founded in 1933, later becoming the DGZfP ("Deutsche Gesellschaft für zerstörungsfreie Prüfung e.V."; the German Society for Non-Destructive Testing), C.H.F. Müller AG in Hamburg was one of the eight industrial companies that supported the society, alongside various authorities, associations and other societies. The founder of the society was Rudolf Berthold, who, after completing his engineering studies, initially focused on X-ray technology in various companies. In 1932, he developed an X-ray machine for non-destructive materials testing, and from 1933 onwards operated the X-ray unit, together with the newly-founded society, at the Berlin-Dahlem State Materials Testing Office.

The DGZfP is primarily active in science and research as well as in training and further education in the field of non-destructive testing methods, and in its statutes undertakes to make all research results available to the general public. The cooperation in the technical committees and the working groups for the preparation and harmonisation of guidelines and standards at national and international level in particular offers members of the association the opportunity to exert a fundamental influence and to drive forward their own developments.