Mid-IR spectroscopy system from Cascade and Morpho installed at Glasgow Airport
Paris, France and Stirling, Scotland--Morpho, a security and biometrics company, and Cascade Technologies, manufacturer of spectroscopy monitoring systems, announced that they have installed a next-generation mid-IR quantum-cascade (QC) laser-based optical spectroscopy system for a field trial at Glasgow Airport. The walk-through portal system allows rapid detection of home-made explosives and improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in real-time via analysis of air samples, without using ionizing radiation or capturing passenger images.
The solution is the first outcome of a partnership initiated in early 2009 between Morpho and Cascade Technologies. Already deployed for the detection, measurement and monitoring of gases in industrial processes and emissions, the technology has been tested for IED/explosives detection since 2005 following the July 2005 London terrorist attacks, with support from the UK government. It presents unique capabilities for gas detection in terms of measurement speed and discrimination and is well suited for airport security checkpoints that require high convenience and low-false-alarm standards.
Jean-Paul Jainsky, chairman and CEO of Morpho, said, "We are very pleased with this partnership and to have now reached trial stage with a major airport operator such as BAA. The combination of Cascade Technologies’ expertise with our leading detection technologies, through our subsidiary Morpho Detection, will contribute to our cutting-edge range of airport control security solutions."
SOURCE: Cascade Technologies; www.cascade-technologies.com/pdfs/Morpho%20Cascade%20Technologies.pdf
Gail Overton | Senior Editor (2004-2020)
Gail has more than 30 years of engineering, marketing, product management, and editorial experience in the photonics and optical communications industry. Before joining the staff at Laser Focus World in 2004, she held many product management and product marketing roles in the fiber-optics industry, most notably at Hughes (El Segundo, CA), GTE Labs (Waltham, MA), Corning (Corning, NY), Photon Kinetics (Beaverton, OR), and Newport Corporation (Irvine, CA). During her marketing career, Gail published articles in WDM Solutions and Sensors magazine and traveled internationally to conduct product and sales training. Gail received her BS degree in physics, with an emphasis in optics, from San Diego State University in San Diego, CA in May 1986.