Rapiscan Systems and the University of Manchester Awarded Defence and Security Prize

Company's Breakthrough Aviation Security System, the RTT80, is Recognized for Engineering Excellence

 

Rapiscan Systems, a leading supplier of security inspection systems, today announced that the company in collaboration with The University of Manchester has won the Defence and Security prize at The Engineer's Technology & Innovation Awards 2010, for its RTT (Real Time Tomography) 80 high-speed airport baggage scanner. The Awards acknowledge engineering excellence emanating from collaborative engineering projects, with this particular category recognising the RTT 80 as the new type of Computed Tomography (CT) scanner to replace conventional baggage X-ray systems around the world.

 

The RTT 80 scanner has been developed by Rapiscan Systems and the University of Manchester, and tested at Manchester Airport and by the US Government. The system combines the high quality 3D data of a CT image with the high speed of a conventional X-Ray baggage screening system, to detect potential explosives in the baggage of airline passengers.

 

Currently, suitcases and large bags go through large X-ray systems and if anything suspicious shows up they are sent to a second line of security using a CT scan system similar to those used in hospitals. This double-layered security system is slow and requires extra operators; the RTT 80 scanner was designed to replace the current multi-layered system with a single CT quality scan that is far faster and far more reliable than any existing technologies, and therefore allows airports to both increase their baggage screening capacity and reduce their capital and operating costs.