Industry reveals a new array

Screening technology has evolved significantly over recent decades, improving detection whilst at the same time meeting the operational requirements of airports.

"But explosives detection remains a very challenging problem, because the type of threat being faced continues to evolve," says Mike Ellenbogen, chief executive officer of Reveal Imaging Technologies. "We are now very much in a threat/countermeasure environment."

Reveal unveiled its ArrayCT cabin baggage screening system in June at the TranSec World Expo in Amsterdam. Ellenbogen tells Jane's that the company had identified a need for a superior screening technology to be put in place for cabin baggage.

"In the EU and US, there is a definite new requirement for liquid detection to be available at a checkpoint. So, we designed a system that can meet today's concerns, whilst at the same time offering sufficient scope to deal with future changes to current regulations," he says.

Reveal has a great deal of experience in offering solutions involving computed tomography (CT) technology. The CT-80 system, for example, has spawned a whole series of variants primarily for hold baggage screening. In collaboration with the Transportation Security Administration, the company also developed the Fusion CT scanner for checkpoint applications. Ellenbogen stresses that ArrayCT was the logical next step.