Brecko, J.,  Lefèvre, U.,  Locatelli, C.,  Van de Gehuchte, E.,  Van Noten, K.,  Mathys, A.,  de Ceukelaire, M.,  Dekoninck, W.,  Folie, A.,  Pauwels, OSG.,  Samyn, Y.,  Meirte, D.,  Vandenspiegel, D. & Semal, P. 2018. ‘Rediscovering the museum”s treasures: µCT digitisation of the type collection’. ToScA 2018. Book of abstracts. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.14640.81921.

Conference abstract

At the end of 2016, the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences (RBINS), acquired two µCT scanners, through a budget of the Belgian Science Policy (BELSPO) to digitize its precious collection. The two µCT scanners, a RX Solutions EasyTom 150 (http://www.rxsolutions.fr/) and a XRE UniTOM (https://xre.be/), with a resolution of 4µm and maximal power of 150kV, and a resolution of 500nm and a maximal power of 120kV, respectively. It was a strategic choice to acquire two systems and not a two-in-one system as it speeds up the digitization process and allows scans to be made in case one of the machines is in maintenance. Besides the obvious time advantage, both machines complement each other. The EasyTom 150 is mainly used for specimens that are large or have a high attenuation, while the UniTOM most of the time is used to scan small or low attenuating specimens. Given the size of the collection, approx. 38 million specimens for RBINS, the focus of the digitization project (DIGIT03) is on the type collection or similar precious specimens. Since the collection bares such a diversity in specimen composition, hardly any scan is like another one. Often it is also not clear what to expect as an outcome, as many of the specimens previously are only studied from the exterior or many decades ago when modern techniques were not available. With this poster the first results and often unexpected surprises are presented, together with the challenges that come along while digitizing a natural history collection using a µCT scanner.