Cargotec scanners negate turnaround concerns

Cargotec Port Security, the division of the Finnish cargo handling systems supplier behind the SafePort scanning technology, has already achieved a 99% detection rate in trials with a spreader mounted scanner, but admits the challenge is now to integrate the sensitive equipment into other equipment without slowing down normal cargo handling operations.

Pilot port projects coming to fruition this year and next will see gamma and neutron signature scanners integrated into shuttle and straddle carriers, though reachstackers could be some way off due to the harsh, ‘knockabout’ environment in which they operate.

A spreader-mounted scanner is already in use on a ship-to-shore crane at the Port of Charleston, while a non-lifting container carrier is fitted with a static scanner at another US port.

The US government had planned to have systems in place capable of scanning every container entering US ports – about 11.6m teu per year – by 2012, but this has since been put back two years due to gaps in the logistics chain.

If the CPS concept takes off, and containers can be monitored for radioactive materials as they are moving along through the logistical chain, turnaround times could be slashed as it would negate the need for heavily congested forward freight scanning facilities.