Methods and devices for inspecting liquid

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9442212-B2
Application number	US-201514804087-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jul 20, 2015
Priority date	Jul 21, 2014
Publication date	Sep 13, 2016
Grant date	Sep 13, 2016

Abstract

Methods and devices for inspecting liquid are disclosed. According to the method, it is firstly determined whether the package of the liquid is transparent, semi-transparent, or opaque; in a case that the package of the liquid is transparent or semi-transparent, Raman spectrum analysis is implemented by a Raman spectrum module on the inspected liquid to judge whether the inspected liquid is dangerous or is suspected; and in a case that the package of the inspected liquid is opaque, the inspected liquid are inspected by using an X-ray dual-energy scanning technology to judge whether the inspected liquid is dangerous or is suspected. The above solution has advantages that the inspection speed is high, the material can be recognized, it is suitable for various packing materials with various shapes, the accuracy of the inspection result is high or the like. Therefore, the solution is suitable for security inspection in public places with high security inspection requirements, complicated inspected liquids, high personnel flow rate or the like.

First claim

We claim:

1. A method for inspecting liquid, comprising steps of:
determining whether the package of liquid is transparent, semi-transparent, or opaque;
if the package of the liquid is transparent or semi-transparent, pointing a transparent or semi-transparent package portion of the inspected liquid to a laser output end of a Raman spectrum module and controlling the module to output a laser beam to implement Raman spectrum analysis on the inspected liquid, comparing the Raman spectrum of the inspected liquid with standard Raman spectrum of the liquid in a database to obtain an analysis result of the inspected liquid, and judging whether the inspected liquid is dangerous or is suspected; and
if the package of the inspected liquid is opaque, inspecting the inspected liquid using an X-ray dual-energy scanning technology to obtain physical properties of the inspected liquid, comparing the obtained physical properties with standard predetermined information of the liquid in the database to obtain an analysis result of the inspected liquid, and judging whether the inspected liquid is dangerous or is suspected.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein when the difference between the physical properties which is obtained through inspection and the standard predetermined information is within a first predetermined threshold, it is judged that the inspected liquid is dangerous or is suspected.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein in a case that the package of the liquid is opaque but has been opened, the method further comprising steps of:
taking a part of liquid out from the liquid and putting it in a transparent package;
pointing the transparent package to the laser output end of the Raman spectrum module, and controlling the module to output a laser to implement Raman spectrum analysis on the inspected liquid which has been taken out; and
comparing the Raman spectrum of the inspected liquid with standard Raman spectrum of the liquid in the database to obtain an analysis result of the inspected liquid.

4. The method according to claim 3 , wherein when the difference between the Raman spectrum of the inspected liquid and the standard Raman spectrum is within a second predetermined threshold, it is judged that the inspected liquid is dangerous or is suspected, and materials of the inspected liquid is recognized at the same time.

5. A device for inspecting liquid, comprising:
an X-ray dual-energy scanning sub-system configured to inspect the liquid using an X-ray dual-energy scanning technology to obtain physical properties of the inspected liquid if a package of the inspected liquid is opaque;
a Raman spectrum module configured to inspect the inspected liquid to obtain corresponding Raman spectrum if the package of the liquid is made of a transparent or semi-transparent material, wherein a transparent or semi-transparent package portion of the inspected liquid is pointed to a laser output end of the Raman spectrum module and the Raman spectrum module is further configured to output a laser beam to implement Raman spectrum analysis on the inspected liquid; and
a computer data processor connected to the X-ray dual-energy scanning sub-system and the Raman spectrum module, configured to compare the Raman spectrum of the inspected liquid with standard Raman spectrum of the liquid in a database to obtain an analysis result of the inspected liquid and judge whether the inspected liquid is dangerous or is suspected, and configured to compare the physical properties of the inspected liquid obtained by the X-ray dual-energy scanning sub-system with standard predetermined information of the liquid in the database to obtain an analysis result of the inspected liquid and judge whether the inspected liquid is dangerous or is suspected.

6. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the Raman spectrum module comprises:
a laser configured to emit a laser beam to illuminate the inspected liquid and generate a Raman spectrum;
a spectrometer configured to collect the Raman signal of the inspected liquid; and
an external light path module connected the laser and the spectrometer and configured to, enable the laser illuminate the inspected liquid, and transmit the Raman signal to the spectrometer.

7. The device according to claim 5 , wherein when the difference between the physical properties obtained through inspection and the standard predetermined information is within a first predetermined threshold, it is judged that the inspected liquid is dangerous or is suspected.

8. The device according to claim 5 , wherein when the difference between the Raman spectrum of the inspected liquid and the standard Raman spectrum information is within a second predetermined threshold, it is judged that the inspected liquid is dangerous or is suspected, and materials of the inspected liquid is recognized at the same time.

9. The device according to claim 6 , wherein the external light path module is a fiber probe or a fiber-free probe.

10. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the X-ray dual-energy scanning sub-system comprises:
a ray source configured to emit an X-ray;
a detection and collection apparatus configured to detect and collect an X-ray signal which transmits through at least one inspected liquid;
a controller configured to control the X-ray source and the detection and collection apparatus to implement X-ray dual-energy scanning on the inspected liquid to obtain projection data and reconstruct the projection data to obtain at least one physical attribute information of the inspected liquid;
a first motion structure configured to bear at least one inspected liquid for X-ray dual-energy CT scanning motion; and
a second motion structure configured to bear at least one inspected liquid for ray DR scanning motion,
wherein the controller is further configured to control the first motion structure to implement Computed Tomography (CT) scanning motion on the inspected liquid and the second motion structure to implement Digital Radiography (DR) scanning motion on the inspected liquid.

11. The device according to claim 10 , wherein the X-ray dual-energy scanning sub-system can be configured to implement DR scanning on the inspected liquid to obtain a transmission image of the inspected liquid, judge whether the inspected liquid have an interlayer or hierarchical mixed liquid, and provide positions for the CT scanning.

12. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the physical properties obtained by the X-ray dual-energy scanning sub-system at least comprises a density and/or an atomic coefficient of the inspected liquid.

13. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the X-ray dual-energy scanning sub-system is configured to scan using a high-energy X-ray and a low-energy X-ray and implement fusion analysis on the high-energy and low-energy scanned information.

14. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the computer data processor is configured to recognize materials of the inspected liquid by using the Raman spectrum obtained by the Raman spectrum module, and provide the name of the inspected liquid.

15. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the information obtained by using Raman spectrum analysis at least comprises a Raman peak position and/or Raman peak intensities of the inspected liquid.

16. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the computer data processor is a Personal Computer (PC) computer or an embedded processing unit.

17. The device according to claim 5 , wherein the computer data processor is configured to implement comparison using a predetermined recognition algorithm.

Assignees

• Nuctech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yi Yumin
• Zhang Li
• Wang Hongqiu
• Feng Huacheng
• Zhang Jianhong

Classifications

• G01N2021/651

  Cuvettes therefore · CPC title

• G01N21/65

  Raman scattering · CPC title

• G01N23/046

  using tomography, e.g. computed tomography [CT] · CPC title

• G01N2201/0612

  Laser diodes · CPC title

• G01N23/087

  using polyenergetic X-rays · CPC title