What are the advantages and disadvantages of security metal detectors?

The Advantages.

The feeling of safety can be created while in an airport, college, office building, or any other area where these detectors are being used. People that are using them can control who enters a specific area and what he/she brings inside it.

There are different types and models of metal detectors, but the most commonly used detectors are the hand held models and walk through models.

With the help of a hand held detector, security personnel can physically detect if a person is carrying a metallic object. On the other hand, walk through metal detectors are much quicker, and they alert the security personnel of dangerous objects such as knives or weapons.

How metal detectors work is quite simple – they use the principles of electromagnetic induction to detect metallic objects. The detection of a dangerous object is notified with an alarm.

In case you need a metal detector, and still don’t know which to choose, here are some advantages of the both mentioned models. First of all, the hand held metal detectors are more affordable and are able to still able to identify metallic objects that are considered to be potentially dangerous. On the other hand, walk though models are more convenient and more efficient. Ultimately, using both the walk through metal detector and the hand scanner will give you the best security.

Metal detectors are able to deter potential would-be criminals because the would-be criminal will think twice before walking through a security check point.

 

The Disadvantages

As for the disadvantages of using any type of metal detector, they cause privacy concerns. A lot of people can find it uncomfortable while passing through a detector scanning them for  potentially dangerous metallic objects. In some cases it is possible that they ask to be manually searched when the rules of safety allow such actions.

Also, in this advantageous medical era, we can find a lot of medical reasons why some person might have metal on his/hers body. Sometimes, metal devices can be surgically installed inside the person’s body which will cause the alarm to be set off each time that person walks through a metal detector. In many cases it is possible for the security personnel to see on their computers that the metal object that caused the alarm is actually a harmless tool and not a weapon.
As already said, metal detectors create electromagnetic fields. This can cause electrical interference to electronic devices that one person might have in its possession. This includes medical devices such as pacemakers. Some metal detectors can harm pacemakers because they have a very strong electromagnetic field. In this case, such detectors can be fatal for those people, and it is strongly advised that they avoid passing through them.

In many situations, metal detectors can give a false alarm if people are wearing some kind of jewelry, watch, phone, loose change or similar. This can make some people feel embarrassed and can cause panic for no reason. A false alarm caused by detectors can be inconvenient both for the security personnel and the person to whom the alarm turned on.