Building on the development and airport trials of its COBRA system, Analogic [ALOG] is introducing a new computed tomography (CT)-based scanner for use at airport passenger checkpoints that that the company says can cut passenger wait times in half while leaving liquids and laptop computers in their bags.
The new system will begin regulatory testing in Europe later this year and will go into an airport checkpoint security lane early in 2017, Jonathan Stone, director of Global Technical Services for Analogic, tells HSR.
“That’s our goal,” Stone says.
Stone describes the new system as next-generation and not an upgraded COBRA, which is certified by the U.S. Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and was used previously in airport trials in the U.S. and in two European airports.
The new system has a smaller footprint than the COBRA and is closer in size to the Advanced Technology X-Ray systems in use at U.S. airport security checkpoints, Stone says. It can also operate at a higher belt speed and includes the company “latest and greatest” detector technology, he says.
The trial of a COBRA system at a lane in London’s Luton Airport, which handles more than 10 million passengers per year, is still running and the airport asked earlier this year to make it permanent, Stone says. “That’s unprecedented in this sub-segment of the” aviation security market, he says, adding that they have expressed interest in CT systems to accommodate future growth at the airport.
Stone says that in the current Luton deployment and the earlier trial at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport, the COBRA system was configured in a conventional lane, meaning there are no motorized conveyors, just the typical tables and rollers that are common in the U.S. The peak throughput for items screened per hour at Luton has been over 440, he says. That is a “substantial” amount, he adds.
The TSA specifications in the U.S. are for 250 items to be screened per hour.
The COBRA system features automated threat detection algorithms, which helps enhance security and also speed throughput by limiting the number of bags that might need to be rechecked. The Luton trial began in mid-2014 and currently passengers are allowed to leave liquids in their bags although laptops are required to be divested based on United Kingdom regulations.
The trial at Schiphol began in late 2013 and ended more than a year later in early 2015. That trial had three phases where liquids and laptops were removed from bags, then a period where either liquids or laptops could remain in the bags and vice versa, and finally where both types of items remained in bags. Stone says this test “went great.”
With regulatory testing beginning in Europe this year with the new checkpoint CT system, Stone believes there is a good possibility for CT systems to begin being used at checkpoint lanes in Europe in mid to late 2017. He also believes that the company may have opportunities before 2017 is out to introduce the new CT system in the U.S. airport environment.
“I feel we’re tracking well in Europe and the U.S.,” Stone says.
Analogic’s CT technology is widely deployed. The company’s technology is included in L-3 Communications’ [LLL] explosives detection systems (EDS) used to screen checked bags at airports in the U.S. and worldwide. Analogic’s technology is also used in a high-speed EDS system supplied by Smiths Detection.