Smiths Detection Awarded Approximately $7 Million Contract for Bottled Liquid Scanners

Yahoo! Finance: Smiths Detection Awarded Approximately $7 Million Contract for Bottled Liquid Scanners [Press Release] (Sept 23 2013)

Smiths Detection has won a contract award for $6.8 million to supply RespondeR Bottled Liquid Scanner (BLS) units to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) for use at U.S. airport passenger screening checkpoints.


RespondeR BLS is a compact system that uses Raman spectroscopy technology to identify hazardous liquids in sealed bottles. The scan and analysis are completed within 20 seconds.


Lance Roncalli, Vice President of Sales, Americas, and U.S. Managing Director for Smiths Detection, said: “The RespondeR BLS technology is a key solution for fast and accurate liquid screening. This award reaffirms our commitment to helping TSA keep travelers safe.”


For RespondeR BLS technical specifications, please visit: http://www.smithsdetection.com/en/explosives-detection-liquids/55-explosives-detection-liquids/responder-bls.html.


Smiths Detection designs and makes advanced solutions to detect and identify threats including explosives, chemical agents, biohazards, nuclear, radiation, narcotics, weapons and contraband. A market leader worldwide in providing layered security technologies, Smiths Detection has major plants in three U.S. states. It partners federal and state government agencies and first responders to strengthen homeland security and safeguard the military. Major customers include the Department of Defense (DoD) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It is part of Smiths Group, a global leader in the practical application of advanced technologies. Smiths Group employs around 23,000 people, including more than 9,000 in the U.S. where it operates around 100 sites in 40 states. ​

 

From their brochure:

If no threat is detected, the display reads “NO THREAT FOUND” in green and the next bottle can immediately be scanned. If a match is made to a chemical in the library, the display reads “THREAT FOUND” in red. In this case, the operator can refer the person for additional screening and continue with his duties, or he can perform an optional secondary identification scan. The secondary scan is completed in less than two minutes and displays the name of the potential threat, which is vital for determining how to proceed with a confirmed threat substance or clearance of a nuisance alarm.​

The way this is worded, I have to conclude that the machine can detect a possible alarm in 20 seconds but that it takes two full minutes to actually identify the substance. At the 20 second mark, you can be diverted for a "secondary inspection" instead of spending the two full minutes to have the substance identified. So if the guy running the bottle scanner is backlogged and people with bottles are queued up, are you still taken to the private room and molested?

What happens if you show up with a case of something? Or multiple bottles? At 20-140 seconds to scan an item, I don't think this is going to be very effective. Either the lines will have to fork, with time spent moving people with bottles aside, or there will a bottleneck (pardon the pun) in the main line when bottles (esp. > 1) need to be cleared.

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Yep -- another drug and cash detector.

 

Rest assured that if there are multiple choices to make, the TSA and its employees will usually pick the one most costly to passengers and the public.