SELECTING APPROPRIATE TEST TARGETS FOR PORTAL WEAPONS DETECTION

Adjusting a portal metal detector for weapons detection must be performed with great care. Set the sensitivity too high and the false rejection rate for personnel passing through the portal will slow traffic to everyone's annoyance. Set the sensitivity too low and run the risk that the machine will allow some of today's small handguns to pass with impunity. Because many of the modern handguns are so small the difference between a sensitivity setting that is too high and one that is too low is quite small. In order to find that fine line between too much sensitivity and too little, a set of test targets must be selected that represent the widest possible spectrum of weapons. The test set must not only be representative of small guns but also reflect the wide variety of metals that are used to manufacture today's weapons.