X-Ray Inspection Trailer
AssigneeAmerican Science and Engineering, Inc.
InventorsAlex Chalmers, Louis W. Perich, Peter J. Rothschild, William John Baukus, Jeffrey Schubert
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
An inspection system, and inspection methods, based upon an imaging enclosure characterized by an enclosing body. A source of penetrating radiation and a detector module are concealed entirely within the body of a conveyance such as a trailer. A characterizing value or an image is formed with respect to an inspected object that is disposed entirely outside the conveyance and the characterizing value or image is made available to a remotely disposed operator. Additional detectors may be disposed distally to the inspected object and may detect transmitted, or forward-scattered, penetrating radiation.
Claims12
A method for employing penetrating radiation to inspect an object, the method comprising:
- a. generating a beam of penetrating radiation originating entirely within the body of a conveyance;
- b. scanning the penetrating radiation across the object, the object disposed entirely outside the body of the conveyance;
- c. detecting penetrating radiation scattered by the object into the body of the conveyance by means of a detector module concealed within the body of the conveyance and generating a backscatter signal;
- and
- d. transmitting a value of a specified characteristic of the object to an operator disposed remotely to the conveyance, the value based at least in part on the backscatter signal.
An inspection system for inspection of an object by a remotely disposed operator, the system comprising:
- a. a first conveyance characterized by an enclosing body;
- b. a source of penetrating radiation contained entirely within the enclosing body for generating a beam of penetrating radiation incident upon the object;
- c. a detector module, contained entirely within the enclosing body, for generating a signal based upon penetrating radiation scattered by the object;
- and
- d. an image generator for converting the signal to an image of the object for viewing by the remotely disposed operator.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.