Stabilizing Tray for Liquid Bottle X-ray Inspection
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current technologies lack a reliable method to assess the threat status of liquid products in hand-carried baggage, leading to disruptions and inconveniences at airport security checkpoints, as well as potential health and economic hazards due to the ban of most liquids, gels, and aerosols.
Innovation Solution
A method involving an X-ray imaging apparatus where bottles filled with liquid are placed in a tray with recesses to stabilize them, inclined to induce a meniscus migration, allowing for accurate X-ray inspection and threat assessment by restraining the bottle from rolling and optimizing the X-ray path through the liquid.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If bottles filled with liquid are placed in a tray for X-ray inspection, then the screening process can be automated and efficiency improved, but the bottles may roll or move during scanning causing inaccurate threat detection
Solution Approach 1:
The tray is designed with pre-configured recesses that automatically position bottles in a stable, inclined orientation before scanning begins. This preliminary positioning action prevents rolling during transport and ensures consistent X-ray imaging conditions, resolving the contradiction between automated screening efficiency and detection accuracy.
2Measurement precision
If bottles are restrained from rolling during scanning, then measurement precision improves, but device complexity increases due to additional restraining mechanisms
Solution Approach 1:
The tray is segmented into multiple independent recesses, each capable of restraining a bottle individually. This segmentation allows the system to handle multiple bottles simultaneously without requiring a complex centralized restraining mechanism, thus improving measurement precision while controlling device complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The recesses are designed to automatically restrain bottles through their geometric configuration alone, without requiring additional active restraining components. The bottle's own shape and the recess's geometry work together to prevent rolling, making the system self-servicing and avoiding increased device complexity.
3Measurement precision
If bottles are inclined to induce meniscus migration, then X-ray inspection accuracy improves, but the positioning requirements become more stringent increasing operational difficulty
Solution Approach 1:
The tray recesses are designed with specific geometric parameters (angle, depth, width) that automatically induce the desired bottle inclination and meniscus migration. By encoding the positioning requirements into the physical parameters of the tray structure, the system achieves high inspection accuracy while maintaining ease of operation, as operators simply need to place bottles in the recesses without precise manual positioning.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This approach enhances the accuracy of threat detection, reduces false identifications, and streamlines the screening process by maintaining the stability of bottles during scanning, thereby improving operational efficiency and passenger convenience.
Implementation Method 1
introducing the tray and the bottle filled with liquid in a scanning area of an X-ray imaging apparatus; performing an X-ray inspection of the bottle filled with liquid
Implementation Method 2
maintaining the bottle filled with liquid in a position to induce a meniscus in the bottle filled with liquid to migrate toward one of the extremities
Data Source
Figure 1
Figure 2
Figure 3
AI summary
A tray is provided for supporting bottles filled with liquid while the bottles filled with liquid are subjected to an X-ray inspection at a security checkpoint to determine the threat status of the bottles filled with liquid. Each bottle filled with liquid is characterized by a transverse dimension and a longitudinal dimension and is of an overall size suitable to be carried in hand-carried luggage allowed onboard a commercial aircraft. The tray includes a plurality of elongated recesses for receiving bottles filled with liquid, the recesses being defined between opposing walls spaced to engage the bottles filled with liquid on its sides when the bottles filled with liquid are placed in the recesses, the opposing walls preventing the bottles filled with liquid from rocking in the recesses during the X-ray inspection. In different embodiments, the recess may be arranged to hold a bottle filled with liquid in a position such that a meniscus in the bottle filled with liquid has a tendency to migrate toward an extremity of the bottle filled with liquid. A method for assessing the threat status of a bottle filled with liquid at a security checkpoint is also provided.