By Vincent Deery, CEO, 3DX-Ray Ltd
Flat panel portable x-ray scanners are already firmly established as an essential tool for bomb disposal teams throughout the world.
Their mobility, accuracy, and speed of use gave EOD operators the ability to view what was inside a bag or package in situ, whilst maintaining a safe distance.
Flat panel portable x-ray scanners allow operators to see detailed high-definition images of the contents of a suspect package or bag. They can determine, not only if it is a threat, but what type of threat, without the potentially dangerous business of opening or moving the object or disrupting or destroying it on site.
They enable agencies to make quick decisions about whether a bag poses a genuine threat or is exactly what it seems to be, an innocent piece of baggage. Meaning, that people can go about their business as quickly as possible and avoid mass disruption to public spaces and transport through unnecessary evacuations.
Over the years, technology has continually developed and now colour differentiated scans have been introduced. This has made it possible to determine if materials are organic, such as explosives, chemicals, and drugs, as well as more innocent items such as foodstuffs. What are metals, such as guns, knives, hand grenades, metal pipe bombs, and IED components (switches, circuit components, etc.) and metallic fragmentation. And lastly, inorganic materials like black powders and aluminized homemade explosives.
These attributes have not been lost on other members of the law enforcement and security community.
The combination of, a large imaging area, with high- quality images, at an affordable price has made the 3DX-Ray ThreatScan®-LS1 a popular solution for secret service officers and private security companies, who require a mobile system, that can be rapidly deployed to secure high-profile VIP delegations at events worldwide.
3DX-Ray asked one of their ThreatScan®-LS1 users, a global security company CEO, who uses the system for their operations in Europe, and South and North America, to describe for us the benefits of working with the system:
“We supply security solutions at conferences worldwide, so it is important to have a mobile system that can be easily and safely shipped. When the security team arrives at a conference location, they will create a sterile zone where all the media reporters and delegates will be checked before passing to the convention.
“With the portable x-ray system, we are checking every device that will proceed to the convention area like cameras, microphones, phones, suitcases, laptops, pens, and more.
“There were several occasions when the system was able to detect ammunition, and this was the difference between a successful operation or a failure which could result in loss of human life.
“It is important to have a system with a large imaging area that can scan an entire case or several objects together; we cannot compromise on the security but must do a fast and effective job so as to not delay VIP delegations”.
The main advantage of x-ray flat panel technology is that you can have a very quick scan of only 6 seconds to cover the 60 x 46 cm imaging area, which can be a car trunk or a large suitcase, a simple go-no-go situation. This should be enough to decide whether you have a threat or a suspicious object, but if needed you can take a second scan of a specific region of interest and then see it much better and larger, see example in Figures 1 and 2 below.
Another advantage is that you do not need to compromise on the penetration and imaging area. You can still get a decent penetration even on thick objects, usually, it will be scanning for devices hidden in a wall, see example in Figures 3 and 4.
For obvious reasons, it is not possible to share much information about the government and secret services who use the system, but several agencies are working with the system and benefit from its advantages: portability, superior image quality, ease of use, and a very large imaging area which allows them to scan an entire room, from the phone to the walls in a very short time enabling the meeting or conference to take place on schedule.
Many agencies like to pair the ThreatScan®-LS1 with the smaller LS3 detector, which can be backpacked or carried in a small Peli case on a plane, or in the boot of a 4×4 when travelling cross country. This system is known as the “Combi”.
More recently 3DX-Ray added a new smaller flat panel to their family of products, called the AS2. Only 43 x 35 cm with improved resolution and the same materials discrimination capability, this new panel is small enough to fit into confined areas such as under the seats of cars, into shelves, draws and recesses, where the larger panels will not fit.
3DX-RAY LTD, CEO, Vincent Deery said: “VIPs are some of the most widely travelled people on the planet. Constantly moving to new venues and new accommodation, on business and pleasure, creating massive challenges for their close protection teams. We are always listening to our customers, and they told us that they needed the search capability and portability provided by our larger x-ray flat panels but needed smaller panels with all the capabilities of their larger counterparts, but small enough to be slipped into spaces where larger panels just won’t fit. So, the new detector panel has been specifically designed for operators working in areas where access is very restricted. We now feel that our ThreatScan family of products caters to the widest range of operational scenarios, whether that’s an EOD technician inspecting a suspicious package or a close protection team clearing a hotel room in advance of the arrival of their ‘Principal’”. ■
Download PDF: 76-78 Vincent Deery – 3DX-Ray Ltd Counter-IED Report Spring-Summer 2024
Counter-IED Report, Spring/Summer 2024