Instrumentation specialist Quantitech has signed an agreement with the Canadian company TeknoScan Systems Inc to introduce a product for banned substance detection, to the UK market.
Keith Golding, Quantitech Managing Director, says, "TeknoScan’s technology represents a major advance in the fight against terrorism and organised crime. The problem with existing technology has been a lack of selectivity; the inability to identify target substances in a chemically ‘noisy’ environment. Until now the most sensitive detector has been the nose of a specially trained dog. However, TeknoScan has developed a highly sensitive and selective portable system that has major advantages over existing techniques, not least of which is the ability to detect target substances from a library containing up to 50 separate compounds all at once."
TeknoScan says that it has demonstrated detection and identification of threat substances from samples as small as 0.1 nanograms in a polluted environment. Therefore, there is an extremely high probability of detection if an individual, object or container has been in contact with a target substance, even if masking agents are present.
The complete TeknoScan Analyser is about the size of a briefcase and provides complete analysis of a sample in three minutes or less.
TeknoScan Systems Vice President, Larry Wardrop, believes that the new technology will be used in a variety of applications. He says, "This equipment will be of enormous benefit to those responsible for our safety and security. Screening of all types of air cargo, container traffic and the vehicles crossing our borders is available to us through this technology. In addition to the sampling equipment that we are developing for containers and packages, we also have versions that enable the testing of individuals, cars, trucks, caravans, hotel rooms and even large meeting venues such as music and sports stadia."
Quantitech will participate in ‘The Emergency Services Show’ at Stoneleigh, on November 24 and 25, 2010 and TeknoScan staff will be available on the Quantitech exhibition stand.
