Golan Group shows giant cargo X-Ray machine

Published 20 July 2006

Who says you cannot teach an old dog new tricks? This 20-year veteran in the security field is not only versatile, but it keeps adding to its capabilities and offerings, with the latest being a giant cargo scanning machine

Size matters — just ask Boca Raton, Florida-based Golan Group. The company has just announced that it has built a massive X-ray device for screening seaport cargo containers. “We can detect contraband and explosives with a tool that’s twice the size of T-Rex,” said Tom Pearson, Golan Group COO. The ArcScan TC (“TC” stands for truck cargo) rides three rails as it sweeps big-rig freight carriers from cab-to-tail light in less than 60 seconds. The ArcScan moves parallel to the truck and trailer and during the pass it generates a digitized X-ray image on a large flat-screen display. The display gives port screeners a two-dimensional image of the cargo which they can check against the shipping manifest by using ArcScan’s proprietary computer software.

Pearson is probably correct in claiming that that outside of NASA science projects, the ArcScan TC “is the most powerful x-ray device in Florida.” The unit is capable of penetrating just a little over fifteen inches of steel thanks to an eight mega-electron volt X-ray beam which is located just inside the control cab. The control cab looks like a rail car with a giant arm that arches over truck trailers. The arm and the cab move as a unit along a forty-meter track in less than a minute, then returns to the starting point to repeat the process on the next tractor-trailer rig.

The company will begin actively marketing the ArcScan to overseas ports as current DHS directives urge nations to inspect U.S.-bound freight containers.