Firm hopeful of vapour detection approval for cargo screening

MION Technologies is hopeful that its Explosive Vapor Detector (EVD) technology will be certified to start screening cargo in Europe starting next year.

Speaking to Air Cargo News, the Spanish firm’s chief executive Daoíz Zamora explained that in January the European Civil Aviation Conference (ECAC) approved the implementation of EVDs for air cargo screening.

The new regulations entered into force in April, but EVD manufacturers now need their products to be certified by the ECAC before they can be used for cargo screening.

Zamora is hopeful the first full certification tests will take place in the first quarter of next year.

The technology will provide an alternative to the current cargo screening methods for explosives of x-ray scanners and detection dogs.

Zamora claimed that EVD technology will simplify and reduce the cost of screening cargo.

He said that MION Technologies’ VPSCAN has a detection rate of higher than 90% and a false alarm rate of less than 2% and can detect in bulk, for example complete trucks and containers without the need of unloading the cargo.

“It is versatile with the capacity to adapt it to many scenarios like pallets, boxes, mail, etc,” he said.

“The results are generated automatically without the need of interpretation from one operator and the complete analysis is done in six minutes for a complete truck.”

He said that air samples are collected in around two to four minutes, depending on size, and the analysis takes a further three minutes.

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