Visitors to Farnborough will be able to try out a new and topical explosives detection system being demonstrated at the show by Smiths Detection.
The system, Sentinel II, addresses a shortcoming of the magnetometers routinely used at airport checkpoints to scan passengers for metal objects, such as knives and guns. Magnetometers do not detect plastic or chemical explosives that may be attached to a person's body.
To meet this danger, government authorities are examining new technology specifically designed to scan passengers for such explosives. The Sentinel II aims to add another layer to the security screening process and address "one of the last remaining gaps in the system", says Ken Wood, president of Smiths Detection, a subsidiary of Smiths Aerospace.
Portal
The Sentinel II is a walk-through portal that would be positioned in front of magnetometers at airport checkpoints. The portal, which Smiths says can screen seven people per minute, shoots "gentle streams of air" onto passengers, intended to dislodge microscopic traces of materials from the passenger's body. An ion mobility spectrometer (IMS) then scans the particles dislodged by the air stream to determine if the passenger has been handling explosives.
Passengers will have to "dwell" in the portal for five seconds and the testing of particles will take another five or six seconds. The machines will cost about $100,000 each.
Mark Elliot, Smiths Detection vice-president of marketing, says the technology represents a breakthrough. "There is nothing available right now that checks people for explosives," he explains.
"It's not only to see if they have explosives on them, but whether they've been in contact with explosives. The explosives could be on them, in their luggage, in their car; they could have been involved in handling a bomb two days earlier."
The Sentinel II can be programmed to test for as many 45 substances simultaneously. "I would never say we can detect everything under the sun, but most [explosives] that have been encountered, we can detect," says Elliot.
Technology
The Sentinel II is based on technology developed at the US Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratory in New Mexico. Elliot say Smiths has taken the technology and "commercialised it to make it user-friendly".
The US government is in the process of testing the walk-through explosives detector to determine if the machines should be coupled with magnetometers at airport security checkpoints.
Those viewing the machine at Farnborough will be able to walk through the portal and be scanned for explosives, and will also be given an opportunity to "sort of look under the hood" of the technology, says Elliot.
The Sentinel II is designed to be self-sufficient and easy to operate. "The operator just stands back and doesn't touch anything," he explain.
"The operator can be hands-off so the passenger isn't being frisked. It's a fairly simple concept and a fairly simple device. What we're trying to get across is that it truly is non-invasive.
"With all the suicide bombings going on and the shoe-bomber incident, this has become critical."
Source: Flight Daily News
