Objective
The ACES (Air Cargo Explosive Screener) program will be devoted to the certification of a new generation of explosive screeners based on vapor detection, targeting the airport security market for cargo screening. ACES has been developed to identify explosive threats with sensitivity and discrimination power orders of magnitude better than state-of-the-art systems. It is unmatched in its ability to screen large volumes in minutes, such as cargo containers and whole trucks, without disassembly.
This line of business is backed up both by a very high social demand and a strong institutional support: explosive screening for aeronautical cargo loaded in passenger aircrafts is mandatory in the EU and nearly all nations. This inspection task is presently executed carried out by X-ray screening, which presents two relevant deficiencies: 1) the cargo load must be broken down into pieces where the maximum side is lower than 120 cm, and 2) a human operator interprets the X-ray image, in order to detect an arbitrarily shaped explosive a few centimeters in size, seen with a depth of 120 cm.
In previous years, SEDET has developed an unmatched technology in the area, has been selected as the leading vapor screener developer by several European Union aviation testing Agencies and Israel, and is currently undergoing more thorough evaluations on its way to certification.
From the technical perspective, ACES´s vapor detection technology first turns into ions minute quantities of vapor molecules released into the atmosphere by hidden explosives. Then these ions are separated at atmospheric pressure according to their size in a mobility filter (a differential mobility analyzer, DMA), and then by filtering the original ions and their fragments according to their respective masses in the vacuum system of a sophisticated triple quadrupole mass spectrometer (MS).
ACES technology is protected by several patents and patents applications, both in the US and the EU.
Fields of science
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringmanufacturing engineering
- social sciencespolitical sciencespolitical transitionsterrorism
- engineering and technologymechanical engineeringvehicle engineeringaerospace engineeringaircraft
- medical and health scienceshealth sciencesinfectious diseasesRNA virusesebola
- social sciencessociologysocial issuessocial inequalities
Keywords
Programme(s)
Funding Scheme
SME-2 - SME instrument phase 2Coordinator
47151 Boecillo
Spain
The organization defined itself as SME (small and medium-sized enterprise) at the time the Grant Agreement was signed.