Aerospace Daily
Dec 16, 2010
PROGRAMS
NEW DELHI — A U.S. company has shown interest in an explosive detection kit (EDK) developed by India’s Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), and a technology transfer agreement is likely to be signed soon, DRDO says.
The EDK costs $100 and was developed by the DRDO’s High Energy Materials Research Laboratory (Hemrl) in Pune.
It comes packed in a small box containing four reagents capable of detecting explosives even in trace quantities. The EDK can identify a range of explosives, includingPETN, Dynamite, TNT, RDX and HMX-based plastic bonded explosives. When a drop of the explosive substance is mixed with chemical reagents in the kit, the drop turns a specific color. Verification can be done using the Raman spectrometric
test.
While the U.S. and other countries have their own EDKs, “foreign technology has certain drawbacks, for example, it lacks confirmatory tests,” says Reny Roy, a H emrl scientist.
“Since they use a test paper instead of liquid drops, that’s another disadvantage, as the test paper is not long-lasting and gets torn.”
- Neelam Mathews
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