Even as the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) takes a closer look at a new generation of explosive detection systems (EDS) based on stationary gantries, General Electric [GE] says the outlook for its line of EDS systems is bright given advances the company is making with its systems which are based on rotating gantries, the head of GE’s Homeland Protection business tells TR2.
In late March TSA certified GE’s latest entry into the EDS market, the CTX 9800DSi, which nearly doubles the throughput of its current CTX 9400 EDS, and is expected to be upgradeable in the relatively near-term for even higher throughputs.
The CTX 9800 features a 32 row detector set versus one detector row in the company’s previous EDS systems, allowing for the capture of more image slices, thus increasing the probability of detecting and lowering the false alarm rate all while speeding throughput, says Dennis Cooke, president of GE’s Homeland Protection business. GE says the CTX 9800 features a new data acquisition system called Clarity, which combines the company’s healthcare division’s 3-D imaging technology with GE Security’s automated explosives detection technology.
The CTX 9800 is the part the latest in GE’s CTX 9000 series, which features a product improvement plan that allows customers to upgrade their EDS systems without having to acquire and install new machines. The upgrades consist of new software and computer installations.
TSA is currently acquiring CTX 9400s as well as kits to upgrade older CTX 9000s to the 9400 configuration. GE has a global installed base of 140 9400s, nearly half of which were acquired by TSA.
The knock on the rotating gantry-based EDS systems are high operations and maintenance costs due to the moving parts. In addition to GE, L-3 Communications [LLL] and Reveal Imaging Technologies also supply TSA and international customers EDS with rotating gantries.
Next Gen EDS
Those high operating costs have led TSA to invest development dollars into newer EDS that have stationary gantries (TR2, Oct. 15, 2008). Contracts to L-3, OSI Systems [OSIS] and SureScan are helping those companies build on work they were already doing on their next-generation EDS.
But Cooke says the “jury is still out” on whether stationary gantry EDS will result in lower operating costs. He believes TSA and the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Laboratory will evaluate the “pros and cons” of both the multi-row detector and the stationary gantry EDS.
Cooke says the multi-row technology is already proven in the healthcare space. Moreover, he says, when it comes to EDS the more parts you add to the system “sometimes is driving reliability more so than the rotating parts.” Bearings are not being replaced all that often, he adds.
Stationary gantry EDS, on the other hand, will require more tubes and detectors to get the same number of views, probability of detection and low false alarm rate as GE’s CTX 9800, meaning more parts for X-Ray generation and detection, Cooke says.
“If the number of parts grows there, do you really get a reliability improvement,” Cooke says.
GE is evaluating the stationary gantry EDS too, Cooke says. In Dec. 2001 GE’s healthcare business acquired Imatron, a developer and manufacturer of stationary gantry, or Electron Beam Tomography, scanners for high-tempo cardiac imaging.
“The question is as you look at EDS applications in the security space, what’s going to improve your reliability,” Cooke says. “Is it having a non-rotating gantry or getting at the high failure rate parts which tend to be related to X-Ray generation?” In the end, “That evaluation has to be performed. Either way, we’re going to be in the game.”
As part of the planned upgrades to the CTX 9000 series, Cooke says GE is already working on a further advance to the CTX 9800 that could be ready in year. He put throughput of the TSA-certified CTX 9800 at between 700 and 750 bags per hour. Next up will be about 1,000 bags per hour, he says.
Cooke says that when the next iteration of the CTX 9800 becomes available that could open the market for level one screening applications at international airports that currently rely on Advanced Technology X-Ray systems. He says both the high probability of detection and lower false alarm rate combined with the 1,000 bags per hour throughput international customers want at level one screening position the new system as an alternative to the AT X-Ray machines.
New, Smaller EDS on the Way
GE is also planning to develop a new Computed Tomography EDS based on the multi-row detector technology that will be aimed at small and medium size airports and even level three checked baggage screening at international airports.
The CTX 5800 will have a smaller footprint than the CTX 9800, with about half of the throughput and a 16 row detector, Cooke says. The two systems will essentially have the same software, he says. The fewer detector rows will help reduce costs so that the system can be offered at a lower price point, he says.
The CTX 5800 should be ready in about 18 months to two years. It will have the same image quality as the CTX 9800, which will enable a higher probability of protection and lower false alarm rates, Cooke says.
The market for small Computed Tomography EDS market has been dominated by Reveal Imaging. However, L-3 last year introduced its new eXaminer SX EDS, which has been certified for use in Europe and the U.S. the SX builds on the company’s eXaminer 3DX EDS platform, taking advantage of improved imaging quality but in a smaller footprint while providing a 360-degree rotational views of entire bags. The system features a throughput of 360 bags per hour inline and 300 in a stand alone configuration (TR2, March 18).
L-3 will be marketing the SX for small and international airports and also for level three screening internationally, Bill Frain, senior vice president for L-3’s Security and Detection Systems business, tells TR2. He says the system will also screen items that typically are shuttled to a different line such as long ski bags.
Frain says that if the next-generation EDS based on a stationary gantry do gain regulatory approvals and market acceptance, the SX will have a place in the small to medium size airports and for out of gauge items.
Another reason the fixed-gantry EDS systems will be around for a while is the large global installed base. If TSA and international customers decide they want to begin purchasing stationary gantry EDS, it will take years to switch out the installed base, which will leave time for ongoing service work as well as further upgrades.
Both GE and L-3 are expecting potentially large awards in June from TSA for their current portfolios of EDS systems (TR2, Jan. 7).
The Need to Diversify
GE doesn’t disclose financial results for its Homeland Protection business but when the company early in 2007 announced a possible joint venture between it and the Smiths Detection division of Britain’s Smiths Group, an interesting fact was that the GE business had lower sales at the time than when it had first acquired the EDS product line from InVision (TR2, Jan. 24, 2007).
However, the combination between the two business units fell through later that year. Since then GE hasn’t disclosed anymore potential acquisitions. Instead, the company has been focusing on growing the Homeland Protection business organically. But to make up for the uneven revenue in the explosives detection business, the company has begun to diversify its product portfolio.
Rad/Nuke Detection
One of the growth areas GE is targeting is the detection of radiological and nuclear materials, an area in which the company currently has no products. GE’s Global Research Center, with help from the Homeland Protection business, has won several research and development contracts with the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office (DNDO). This work includes development contracts for the handheld Intelligent Personal Radiation Locator (IPRL) and the Stand-off Radiation Detection System (SORDS).
IPRL is in the final phase of development and is going through characterization testing with DNDO. If that goes well GE expects it would do additional work on the device to ready it for production. IPRL could potentially replace pager style radiation detectors and the larger backpack systems used to identify and locate the threat detected by the pager. Both GE and Smiths Detection have IPRL contracts. The biggest customers for the new devices would likely be Customs and Border Protection and the Coast Guard.
SORDS is in the third phase of a four-phase effort, all of which is aimed at advancing the development of a mobile-based radiation and nuclear detection system. GE, along with Raytheon [RTN], Science Applications International Corp. [SAI] and the Naval Research Lab all have SORDS contracts with DNDO.
“One of the biggest markets out there is radiological and nuclear detection,” Cooke says. “We see a tremendous opportunity to participate in that market. We don’t today.”
Last year GE also introduced its handheld StreetLab Mobile system, which provides chemical identification for first responders and hazardous materials teams. GE is also working to give the system biological detection capabilities, which would make StreetLab Mobile the first handheld package to deliver chemical and bio-detection in one unit. The bio- detection capability is expected to be ready some time this year, Cooke says.
GE hasn’t been sitting still in the development of its explosive trace detection products. The DHS TSL recently certified the company’s new Itemiser DX benchtop trace detector, which also passed operational testing and evaluation with the TSA. The agency tells TR2 the system should be on the Qualified Product Listing (QPL) soon. Smiths Detection’s Ionscan 500DT was put on the QPL last year.
GE and Smiths have been on the older QPL but TSA established new requirements several years ago that led to the development of more advanced desktop trace detectors.
In the summer of 2007 GE also launched a new handheld explosives trace detector called MobileTrace (Aug. 22, 2007). The system is a more sophisticated, and expensive, handheld device than the VaporTrace device, which remains in GE’s product stable.
A U.S. military agency recently awarded GE a contract for a “large” number of MobileTrace units for detecting improvised explosive device threats, Cooke says. GE expects to complete deliveries shortly, he says. The customer and the quantity of the order could not be disclosed, he adds.
Shoe Scanner
GE is also continuing to develop its shoe scanner technology, which TSA has said isn’t ready for use at checkpoints. The original system is based on quadrupole resonance but GE is now integrating trace detection to its device as well “to detect all of the threats that they’ve [TSA] identified for shoe screening,” Cooke says. The company has built a prototype of the new system and has had representatives from the TSL out to see it and examine the data, he says. “We hope to have the prototype unit in TSL for evaluation” sometime in the second quarter of 2009, he adds.
Another way GE is working to provide more stability in the homeland security business is discussing with TSA more even delivery schedules for EDS systems. Cooke says that the “industry has been clamoring” for this and that level loading has been helpful.