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CAA enlists Rapiscan to develop Lithium battery test
[ July 29, 2014 // Chris ]The UK’s Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) has awarded security equipment specialist Rapiscan Systems a contract to determine the feasibility of automatically detecting potentially dangerous Lithium batteries in air cargo. The CAA contract, supported by UK Department for Transport funding, calls for Rapiscan to develop advanced detection algorithms to establish the extent to which lithium batteries transported within air cargo can be identified.
CAA’s state safety programme manager, Ian Shaw, said: “The CAA chose Rapiscan for this important project because they have the technical expertise to gather and process significant test data.”
Over the nine-month contract, Rapiscan will examine various cargo configurations and develop, test, and evaluate potential advanced image-processing software tools. The results may be used by the CAA to propose new air-cargo handling policies, and may encourage further work on commercial software tools to assist air cargo inspectors.
Rapiscan North America president, Brad Buswell, added: “Rapiscan Labs, our corporate research and development division, is a technology leader in the area of advanced threat detection algorithms. Rapiscan has a successful track record in the development of detection technologies for the aviation industry, and this project will further expand our support for air cargo safety and security.”
According to a recent ternational Air Transport Association (IATA) report, lithium-metal batteries transported as cargo will be restricted to cargo aircraft only from January 2015.