Patent ID: 6891919

Claim:
An x-ray-based nonintrusive inspection apparatus, comprising: a support frame; a gantry rotatably mounted to the support frame, the gantry having an opening through which an object can be transported; a gantry motor connected to the gantry, and being operable to rotate the gantry; an x-ray source mounted to the gantry; a plurality of x-ray detector crystals mounted to the gantry on a side thereof so that x-rays emitted by the x-ray source radiate through the object before being detected by the x-ray detector crystals; a collimator shield secured to the gantry; an adjusting actuator connected to the collimator shield and being actuable to move the collimator shield between a pre-scanning position and a CT scanning position, in the pre-scanning position the collimator shield exposing a smaller portion of a respective crystal to the x-rays than in the CT scanning position; and a controller connected to the gantry motor and the adjusting actuator and controlling the motor and adjusting actuator such that the collimator shield is in the pre-scanning position when the gantry is stationary and in the CT scanning position when the gantry is rotating.