Thanks Aaron, good to see I'm not the only one X-raying these suppressors.
With regards to the steel suppressor, it requires a markedly different X-ray exposure and the use of an anti-scatter grid to get a reasonable image.
The A-TEC suppressor is all aluminium and can be X-rayed on a direct detector at 75kV and 2mAs.
My ASE Utra is all steel (even the baffles) and has a double tube design. It requires an anti-scatter grid and an exposure of 121kV and 1mAs.
Here it is being X-rayed alongside an aluminium step wedge as a density reference:
And here are the radiographs. Note that because of the baffle design I take three exposures with the suppressor rotated at different angles so as to get visualisation of all the spaces where lead can accumulate (which you don't have to do with the aluminium suppressor):
If you X-ray the aluminium suppressor with a technique for a steel suppressor, the aluminium one is burned out on the image:
And if you X-ray a steel suppressor with a technique for an aluminium suppressor, the steel suppressor is under exposed:
Under the hood of the X-ray receptor:
The yellow surface is the detector and ionisation chamber combination. The black tray being slid out (to place on top of the detector) is an anti-scatter grid. If it is a focussed grid such as the one above, it will have a fixed working distance. In my case it is 115cm...