L-3 signs $40 million DHS deal for airport explosives detection
Industry leader will provide new eXaminer systems and provide updates to hardware and software for those already in use; multi-slice CT imaging technology continues to wow at home and abroad; control system manipulates conveyor belts for optimum scanning position
More good news for New York-based L-3 Communications. The company’s Security and Detection Systems subsidiary has been awarded a $40 million TSA contract to provide additional eXaminer explosives detection systems as well as software and hardware upgrades for machines currently in use. The TSA-certified scanners — which can be used as a fully integrated inline system or as a stand-alone unit — feature multi-slice computer tomography (CT) imaging technology, edge enhancement, monochrome reverse, and high-resolution detailing. In addition to the United States, the eXaminer is in use in Japan, Israel, Italy, and the United Kingdom.
The new upgrades focus on improving the throughput speed of both the stand alone lobby machines and those that operate in-line as part of the baggage conveyor system. Of the two changes, those for the latter are the most interesting. In order to ensure that the baggage is properly aligned for optimal scanning, the eXaminer’s new one-meter-wide entrance tunnel senses bag size and automatically rotates bags by speeding up and slowing down the two tracks that make up the conveyor belt. Other refinements boost throughput by narrowing the space required between bags and improve extra-long baggage capacity to accommodate difficult-to-screen objects such as skis and golf bags.
The total number of new machines purchased by TSA was not available at press time.
-read more in this company news release
