Container Inspection System
Container
Inspection
Research at INET on a
container inspection system began in 1995, and the prototype
of the system was constructed and operated successfully
at INET in 1997. The first operational
container inspection system (fixed type) had been put
into operation in Fuzhou City (Mawei Harbor), southern
China in 1999.
The TC-SCAN
container inspection system was designed to be a fast,
accurate and efficient anti-smuggling and terrorism deterrent
for container/cargo inspection. The radiation source used
is the
projector (Amersham product).It is specialized with a
gas-pressurized array ion-chamber detector, which carries
several worldwide patents. With the special array detector
and the advanced signal and image processing technology,
these inspection systems possess excellent characteristics
and are as good as the fixed type inspection systems using
an accelerator source of 4-9MV. The Contrast Indicator
(CI) and the Image Quality Indicator (IQI) for 100mm steel
are 0.5% and 2.5%,respectively. The Steel Penetration
(SP) is about 240mm (iron), the throughput is 30 standard
containers per hour, and the maximum dose per scan is
less than 5 mSv. This performance is good enough for routine
container inspection and the reliability and the stability
have proved very good.
Since 1999 much progress has been achieved. Four new
kinds of
scanner (mobile, re-locatable, air-cargo pallet and cargo
train scanner) have been developed. Dozens of TC-SCAN
container inspection systems have been working very well
for the Customs worldwide, and these systems can fulfill
different kinds of Custom's requirement. In addition,
a digital radiography/computed tomography (DR/CT) for
air cargo inspection systems was developed recently.
