METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR WEIGHING OBJECTS USING X-RAYS

摘要

X-rays from an x-ray source (8) pass through an object (24) as it is being conveyed and the x-rays are attenuated in proportion to the mass of the object. The x-rays impinge upon an x-ray detector array consisting of a layer of scintillating material (12) that produces light proportional to the intensity of the x-rays. The emitted light is scanned by an array of photodiodes (14) and converted into a value representing the average areal density for a volume element above the photodiode. A processor (26) determines the mass of the volume element based on the size and average areal density of the element. The processor sums all of the elements to arrive at a total mass of the object, and also generates a mass map of the object.