BAGGAGE

SCANNER
WHAT IS BAGGAGE SCANNER?
It is a compact X-
ray baggage
scanner ideal for
checkpoints,
small baggage and
large baggage
scanning in high
security premises
such as Airports,
Government offices,
Railways, MRTS,
power plant & other
premises
applications.
COMPONENTS OF BAGGAGE
SCANNER
 HOW LUGGAGE SCANNER WORKS?
•Given the current state of the world, there are physical checkpoints,
baggage scanners and metal detectors almost everywhere.
•With that in mind, it doesn’t come as a surprise that at airports, some
of the busiest hubs for transportation, security is getting tighter by the
day.
•In the following slides the few technical aspects have been shared.
 SCANNERS USING THE X-RAYS
• X-rays have a wide variety of more useful applications. Since X-rays are
electromagnetic waves of a comparatively small wavelength and high
frequency, they have very high energy, but do not have a very high
penetrating power.
• The amount of X-ray energy absorbed by different materials is different when X-
rays are passed through them. Therefore, the intensity of the transmitted rays
gives us insight into the material of the object.
• The reflected or ‘scattered’ waves also have a different intensity when reflected
from different materials. Because of this, we have two types of scanners.
 MEASURING THE INTENSITY
1)Luggage scanners use this technology. Once the luggage is inside, one side
of the scanner releases X-rays.
2)These X-rays pass through the bag and some of the energy of the X-rays is
absorbed by the various objects in the bag, whereas the empty spaces do
not block the X-rays and the waves go through without any change in
intensity.
3)These waves then hit the first plate-like detector. Before hitting the second
detector, the material between the two detectors blocks the low-energy
waves, so that only the high-energy waves hit the second plate.
MEASURING THE INTENSITY AFTER
TRANSMISSION THROUGH THE MATERIAL
4)The outputs of these plates are compared, which helps us know the
materials of the various objects inside the bag.
5)An image is then digitally constructed, describing not only the
shapes, but also the material of objects inside the bags by
representing them with different colors.
6)Denser materials like metal or glass are represented by darker
colors, while food and cloth etc. are represented by lighter colors.
Orange represents organic materials, while darker colors represent
denser materials.
 PSEUDO COLORS
•Baggage scanners create a 3D image of what's inside each bag.
•It goes through an automated X-ray analysis. These machines are very
sophisticated now, they illuminate the bags from various angles with
various energies of X-rays.
•All the different materials are represented with different pseudo colors.
•Metal, for example, tends to come out blue; organic material tends to
come out orange; lighter metals tend to come out green.
•"That can be interpreted automatically by fairly advanced software which
says this bag has maybe an undue amount of metal or organic material.
 COLORS INTERPRETATION
– Blue equals hard materials. Metal (blue/black), hard plastics,
alloys etc. For example, your gun or your metal knife will show
up as blue or black or a mix. So will wires, your sunglass case,
batteries, etc.
– Orange is biological material. Anything that is natural, that is,
and some things that aren’t. Rubber, leather, food, dynamite and
other explosives (except plastic – that’ll turn slightly bluish), all
liquids and gels and organic powders (like flour, for example).
– Green is for plastics and alloys, where the density isn’t great
enough to make it blue or black. This can also be ceramics,
though only the densest of them. Normally, ceramics (think
ceramic knives) will show up as orange.
 UNUSUAL SHAPES
• Scanner operators will be looking for "unusual shapes
in there, lots of wires, that sort of thing".
• "Normally luggage is mostly filled with clothes and you
might have the odd laptop and batteries."
 UNUSUAL SHAPES
• Something like a bomb would likely show up as a lump
of organic material.
• "High explosives tend to come out orange on the scan.
It could be a bottle of a water but a different shape might
indicate high explosives
FAQ: CAN XRAY SEE THROUGH ALUMINUM
FOIL?
• The aluminum foil can be penetrable. The thick aluminum
foil should be able to see the penetrating power of X-
ray machine.
• The high penetrating power can be seen under the aluminum
foil. X-Rays will Pass Straight through Aluminium of Almost
ANY Thickness as it's Density is so Low !!
FAQ: ARE BAGGAGE SCANNERS SAFE?
• Millimeter-wave scanners use radio waves and produce
no ionizing radiation hence it is safe.
• Backscatter x-ray scanners do, in fact, use ionizing
radiation in the form of very low-dose x-rays and have
negligible effect