Combined mobile container inspection system with low target

• US 7,352,843 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2004
• Issued: 04/01/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2003
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nuctech Company Limited (Tsinghua Tongfang Co., Ltd.), Tsinghua University
• Original Assignee: Nuctech Company Limited (Tsinghua Tongfang Co., Ltd.), Tsinghua University
• Inventors: Yang, Hongliang, Wang, Jiantao, Bai, Zhengyu, Yang, Guang, Li, Jianmin, Jiang, Nan, Peng, Hua, Sun, Shangmin, Chen, Zhiqiang, Hu, Bin, Hu, Haifeng, Song, Quanwei, Liang, Zhizhong, Wu, Yucheng, Han, Yanjun, Liu, Rongxuan, Shen, Wanquan, Su, Jianjun
• Primary Examiner(s): Yun; Jurie
• Application Number:
  US10/580,870
• Publication Number:
  US 20070110215A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,216 Days
• Field of Search: 378/57, 378/198
• US Class Current: 378/57
• CPC Class Codes: G01V 5/20 Detecting prohibited goods, e.g. weapons, explosives, hazardous substances, contraband or smuggled objects

Abstract

A combined mobile container inspection system, comprising: a radiation source; a chassis; a rotatable deck provided at an end of the upper surface of said chassis and rotatable with respect to said chassis, provided with a parallelogram bracket formed by a hingedly-connected four-bar linkage mechanism, wherein the cross link of the parallelogram bracket extends to form a horizontal cross arm with detectors, the other end of said horizontal cross arm is connected with a vertical upright arm, which is vertical or parallel to said horizontal cross arm; and a sliding deck provided at the rear end of the rotatable deck and movable upwardly and downwardly, said sliding deck is provided, in turn, with the radiation source, the X-ray therefrom is always right in the face of the detectors provided in the horizontal cross arm and vertical upright arm, calibrator and collimator.

Claims

1. A combined mobile container inspection system, comprising:

an X-ray radiation source;

a chassis;

a rotatable deck provided at an end of an upper surface of said chassis and being rotatable with respect to said chassis, provided with a parallelogram bracket formed by a hingedly-connected four-bar linkage mechanism, wherein a cross link of the parallelogram bracket extends to form a horizontal cross arm with detectors, an end of said horizontal cross arm being connected with a vertical upright arm that has detectors and can be vertical or parallel to said horizontal cross arm, wherein an auxiliary bracket of the vertical upright arm is provided on the upper surface of said chassis corresponding to an end of the rotatable deck when the vertical upright arm is supported parallel to the horizontal cross arm; and

a sliding deck provided at the rear end of the rotatable deck and movable upwardly and downwardly, said sliding deck is provided, in turn, with the radiation source, the X-ray generated therefrom being in the face of the detectors provided in the horizontal cross arm and vertical upright arm, with a calibrator, and with a collimator,

wherein said sliding deck is comprised, in two parts, of a fixed frame and a sliding frame provided with the radiation source, calibrator and collimator, the fixed frame is fixed to the rotatable deck, both ends of the inner side of the fixed frame are provided with sliding rail, the sliding frame is embeddedly provided on the sliding rail of the fixed frame, and a driving mechanism, which moves the sliding frame upwardly and downwardly, is connected between the fixed frame and the sliding frame.

2. The combined mobile container inspection system according to claim 1, wherein a middle part of the upper surface of the chassis is provided with a device cabin, in which an image acquisition module, an operation inspection device and a modulator cabin are provided.

3. The combined mobile container inspection system according to claim 2, wherein the rotatable deck on the upper surface of the chassis rotates up to 90 degrees when the container is inspected, and a gantry frame is comprised of the parallelogram bracket, horizontal cross arm and vertical upright arm, the sliding deck is moved downwardly which lowers a target point of rays irradiated from the radiation source, calibrator and collimator to enlarge the scanning range, the control signal is output from a remote control device, driving the gantry frame on the upper surface of the chassis to move parallel across the inspected container, the sector formed of the X ray irradiated from the radiation source penetrates through the inspected container at a low position and is converted into electrical signal input into the image acquisition module in the device cabin after the sector is received by the detectors in the horizontal cross arm and vertical upright arm, the image signal is transferred from the image acquisition module to the operation inspection device and the inspection result is displayed by a display device of the remote control device.

4. The combined mobile container inspection system according to claim 3, wherein the angle between the chassis and the rotatable deck is adjustable up to a maximum angle that is less than 90 degrees.

5. The combined mobile container inspection system according to claim 1, wherein wheels provided with a driving device are mounted on a lower surface of said chassis.

6. The combined mobile container inspection system according to claim 5, wherein said driving device comprises a motor and a decelerator which are fixed with the lower surface of the chassis, and a motor shaft is connected with the decelerator, an output shaft of which is connected with the wheels directly provided on a rail or directly contacting a ground surface.

7. The combined mobile container inspection system according to claim 6, wherein said radiation source is a linear electron accelerator or a radioactive isotope.

8. The combined mobile container inspection system according to claim 5, wherein said driving device has a hydraulic pressure motor which is fixed to the lower surface of the chassis, an output shaft of the hydraulic pressure motor being connected with the wheels directly provided on a rail or directly contacting a ground surface.

9. The combined mobile container inspection system according to claim 1, wherein said driving mechanism is composed of a screw thread pair which comprises a drive screw provided on the fixed frame and a nut fixed within the sliding frame.

10. The combined mobile container inspection system according to claim 1, wherein said driving mechanism comprises a hydraulic pressure oil cylinder provided between the fixed frame and the sliding frame.