“Before Ghana Customs had this, goods were being physically examined in the port, a process taking days to complete,” says local scanner manager Ernest Woka. “Now it takes just minutes to do the scanning, and the whole clearance process can be completed in an hour or two.”

According to Mike Peter Bakufan, senior customs official at Tema, the new scanner is an extremely effective way of counteracting smuggling, increasing revenue, and saving both labor and time. “With the scanner, a global view of the container’s contents is ascertained in seconds,” he says.

MEETING A GROWING NEED FOR CARGO SCREENING
For L-3, where the largest growth area is the Middle East, Susan Massihzadeh says the company’s cargo screening systems must meet strict requirements for reliability, image quality, and service. “Reliable performance is critical because these devices are often deployed in very remote sites and you don’t want to keep having to send service people out to resolve problems,” she says, adding that Varian’s performance in these areas is “absolutely world class.”

Bob Armistead, president of ARACOR, says high-energy accelerators are core to the company’s security systems business. ARACOR has installed its Eagle mobile cargo inspection system at ports in Miami, Florida; Savannah, Georgia; and El Paso, Texas, and has systems in transit to Baltimore, Maryland, and Kingston, Jamaica. “We consider the Linatron-M accelerator to be a fundamental building block in our security solution,” he says.

Kevin Igielski, general manager of Chicago-based BIR’s Security Systems Division, says Japan is the key area for his company, with nine Linatron-based scanners installed in Tokyo, Osaka, Kobe, Ngoya, and Yokohama. BIR is expecting to install up to three systems a year in the region for the next three to six years.

“The Japanese have been very aggressive in spending money on technology to build the infrastructure to comply with regulations and make their borders safe,” says Igielski.

Continued
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