X-rays valuable as industrial measures

Think of X-rays, and you probably think of fractured wrists and broken legs but the team at IsoScan have a different take on X-ray technology.

For the last four years, IsoScan has been developing a range of non-invasive scanners using X-rays, gamma rays, lasers and infrared to test for things as diverse as the water content in wood and contaminants in meat.

One of its most successful products is the Eagle FA, which uses similar technology to airport baggage scanners to give an instant fat content reading for boxes of export meat.

The Eagle FA recently won the Discovering Gold award for technological scientific and innovative research at the Wellington Regional Gold business awards.

IsoScan marketing manager Joe Manning, said the "non-invasive" technology meant products were not damaged by testing techniques and results were instant.

"Meat companies have to provide meat to export markets on very tight specifications and if they miss those specifications there are penalty payments and if they go over they are effectively giving meat away, so they want to get it bang-on."

The Eagle FA has been developed by IsoScan in a joint venture partnership with New Zealand food company, Anzco Foods.

IsoScan is a division of the National Isotope Centre at Geological and Nuclear Sciences, based in Seaview near Wellington.

It was established as a separate company in 2001 and now has six full-time staff including senior scientists Gavin Wallace and Murray Bartle, as well as electronics and software engineers and physicists.

The Eagle FA technology has been licensed to US company Smiths Heinmann which makes and markets the scanner.

It has been sold to companies in the United States, Australia and Mexico, as well as being used in eight processing plants in New Zealand.

IsoScan has also developed a scanner to measure the green density of lumber in conjunction with joint venture partner Carter Holt Harvey.

That scanner allows a timber company or processing mill to sort timber depending on moisture content which saves money, time and wastage during the drying process.

The wood scanner is already being used to test density in 80 per cent of structural timber being processed across New Zealand and Australia.

Though Mr Manning would not divulge the company's turnover, he said the Eagle FA sold for about $400,000. The lumber density sorter sells for US$235,000 ($337,500).

IsoScan is already developing a scanner for use in the wool industry and working with the horticultural industry on a project, details of which are yet to be made public.

Mr Manning said they hoped to start selling both the meat and timber scanners in North and South America and Europe in the near future.

- NZPA