NEWARK, Calif.—Morpho Detection’s primary focus for the time being is developing the next generation versions of its detection systems to identify specific threats although the company is keeping in mind new go-to-market business models to provide security solutions, company executives said here during a media briefing.
Morpho is “really focused on innovation, innovation, innovation,” Philippe Petitcolin, chairman and CEO of Morpho, said. “We really try to remain on the top line of the products in terms of innovation.”
Morpho is the security sector of France’s Safran Group
and has businesses in the areas of detection and identity solutions.
Petitcolin said Morpho Detection is only interested in adding products to its portfolio that “make sense for the customer to have.” He added that the company isn’t interested in adding products such as X-Ray systems where it would be the eighth or ninth competitor in line.
Karen Bomba, CEO of Morpho Detection, said her company’s customers generally have not been interested in solutions that involve bundling different kinds of detection systems or where the company installs a suite of capabilities and then is paid on a per scan basis. “Mature customers” are not interested in this model although “in the developing world that business model may be much more attractive, particularly in countries where they don’t have capital to make the investment,” she said. “This is something we’re discussing.”
Bomba added that in some developing countries customers are seeking bundled solutions, opening the door for Morpho Detection to explore whether to seek partnerships to supply “the entire package they’re looking for.” She also said
Morpho Detection has two key product areas, computed tomography-based Explosive Detection Systems (EDS) that are typically used to screen checked bags and many of the world’s airports, and explosive trace detection devices that are used at airports and for other markets such as nuclear power plants, ports and borders, the military, transportation systems, first responders and others.
Bomba said the company hasn’t been exploring large detection equipment, such as X-Ray-based gantry systems for screening cargo and containers, which typically produce images that are analyzed for anomalies.
“We’re not looking for the anomaly,” Bomba said. “We’re actually trying to identify the actual material, the actual threat. If you look at X-Ray, whether large gantry in ports or in other markets, they don’t ID the specific threat, the specific chemical, and when we need that equipment, we use other people’s equipment to round out and satisfy those needs.”
This year and next Morpho Detection expects to bring to market new products aimed at providing its customers with dramatically better capabilities for identifying specific threats. This summer the company hopes to have its X-Ray diffraction-based XDi system certified in Europe and available for sale in 2015 for “forward looking airports” for checkpoint applications, Cameron Ritchie, Morpho Detection’s chief technology officer, said during the briefing. The XDi system essentially provides a chemical “fingerprint” of what’s inside a bag to enable identification of explosives. The key application of XDi will be to detect liquid explosives but it will allow travelers to keep their liquid containers in their carry-on bags without having to consolidate and divest them, he said.
Eventually the company plans to develop XDi for checked baggage security as well, Ritchie said. Morpho Detection already has an X-Ray diffraction based EDS system that it has sold to countries with high security needs but the company has been miniaturizing for checkpoint use, he said.
This fall Morpho Detection expects to release a new handheld device for detecting radiation. SourceID, which is uses a cadmium zinc telluride detector. In addition to providing radioisotope identification, SourceID will be the first commercially available system with real-time directional data to allow operators to obtain the direction from which the radiation originates, allowing for a more localized inspection of suspect cargo.
Morpho Detection is also developing two variants of mass spectrometry-based explosive trace detection systems, one cabinet-size system that can be used in the air cargo security environment and the other a desktop version for the aviation security and other markets. The small cabinet-sized system, which can be move around on its own wheels, is being tested by the Transportation Security Administration and the company hoes to have it qualified to sell later this year.
The desktop variant has been through a test phase at the Department of Homeland Security’s Transportation Security Laboratory and is being prepared for additional testing at the lab.
Morpho Detection officials provided HSR and a number of French media a tour of the company’s CT EDS Center of Excellence here where the EDS systems are designed, developed and manufactured. The company also displayed its vision for a checkpoint of the future that combines its detection systems with identity solutions provided by Morpho’s two other business areas, MorphoTrak and MorphoTrust.
The company also showed off its EntryScan trace portals, which at one time were purchased by TSA for checkpoint screening of people for explosives. While the agency discontinued using the trace portals due to operational problems in the airport environment, the company has found a market for the systems in protecting nuclear facilities.
In the trace detection market, Morpho Detection’s big seller is its ion trap mobility spectrometry-based Itemiser DX system, which is used in many U.S. airports as a secondary inspection system for screening checked bags for explosives, airport checkpoints, air cargo security, critical infrastructure facilities and more. The company is developing a non-radiation detection source for the Itemiser system to meet customer demands.
Bomba said that in the past two years Morpho Detection has experienced single-digit growth rates for its EDS systems, with TSA and Canada’s transportation security agency the market drivers. Recapitalization and expanded needs are the reasons behind these sales in North America, she said.
There has also been a pick-up in international growth, including in China, Bomba said, and the company expects increased interest in Europe in the coming years as airports there are forced to comply with new regulations requiring EDS system to be eventually installed for checked baggage screening. Currently much of checked baggage screening in Europe is done using Advanced Technology X-Ray systems, which are used in the U.S. to screen carry-on bags.