Inspection unit

• US 6,663,280 B2
• Filed: 06/28/2001
• Issued: 12/16/2003
• Est. Priority Date: 06/28/2001
• Status: Expired due to Term

• Current Assignee: Smiths Heimann GmbH (Smiths Group International Holdings Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Heimann Systems GmbH
• Inventors: Doenges, Gerhard
• Primary Examiner(s): ARANA, LOUIS M
• Application Number:
  US09/892,781
• Publication Number:
  US 20030002630A1
• Time in Patent Office: 901 Days
• Field of Search: 378/203, 378/208, 378/68, 378/53
• US Class Current: 378/203
• CPC Class Codes: G01T 1/1648 Ancillary equipment for scintillation cameras, e.g. reference markers, devices for removing motion artifacts, calibration devices adapted for flow studies G01T1/1647
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 5/20 Detecting prohibited goods, e.g. weapons, explosives, hazardous substances, contraband or smuggled objects
• CPC Class Codes: G21F 3/00 Shielding characterised by its physical form, e.g. granules, or shape of the material

Abstract

An inspection apparatus having at an entrance and an exit of a radiation tunnel a radiation-shielding curtain so that no ionized radiation can exit from the inspection unit as a luggage piece or another object to be inspected is passed into or out of the inspection unit. A plurality of light curtains, which are arranged at a spacing, one behind the other, so that the coefficient of fiction (μ) is smaller than when the heavier curtain is provided.

Claims

1. An inspection apparatus comprising:

a radiation tunnel having an entrance and an exit;

a conveyor for transporting objects from the entrance toward the exit of the radiation tunnel;

a radiation zone formed within the radiation tunnel, the radiation zone having a least one radiation source and at least one corresponding detector; and

at least one pair of shielding curtains positioned adjacent to one another in a transport direction at the entrance of the radiation tunnel, the at least one pair of shielding curtains being spaced from one another at a distance of at least one-half the length of a foremost shielding curtain measured from an upper region of the radiation,tunnel, the upper region being positioned opposite the conveyor.

2. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a second pair of shielding curtains is arranged at a spacing, adjacent to one another, at the exit, following the radiation zone in the radiation tunnel.

3. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the spacing between the at least one pair of shielding curtains corresponds approximately to the length of the foremost shielding curtain.

4. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the shielding curtains positioned between the shielding curtain of the radiation-tunnel entrance and the radiation zone, and the shielding curtain of the radiation-tunnel exit and the radiation zone, are shorter than these outermost shielding curtains.

5. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one pair of shielding curtains is additionally covered with a material having a particularly small coefficient of friction.

6. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one pair of shielding curtains is structured as thin slightly-overlapping lead cloths.

7. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one pair of shielding curtains is structured as thin whole-piece lead curtains.

8. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one pair of shielding curtains are flexible.

9. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one pair of shielding curtains protect from high-intensity radiation produced from the radiation source.

10. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the inspection unit inspects luggage.

11. The inspection apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the at least one pair of shielding curtains has a lead-equivalent value distributed between them, whereby the lead-equivalent value is determined by radiation intensities produced by the at least one radiation source.

12. An inspection unit comprising:

a radiation tunnel having a radiation zone defined by at least one radiation source and at least one detector arranged towards the radiation source, the radiation tunnel having at least one entrance that is shielded outwardly by a radiation shielding apparatus,

wherein the radiation shielding apparatus comprises;

at least two functionally-cooperating curtains arranged at a minimum spacing, one behind the other, wherein a lead-equivalent value, which is needed for the required shielding, is distributed between the two functionally-cooperating curtains, and wherein the minimum spacing between the two functionally-cooperating curtains is at least one-half the length of one of the two functionally-cooperating curtains.