New technology has been introduced to absorb bomb blasts and protect money during cash-in-transit robberies.
This is in an effort to catch up with robbers who now use commercial explosives to blow up cash vans.
The technology has been developed by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) following a spate of robberies.
There have been almost 180 cash-in-transit robberies across the country in 2018 alone.
AllCash Technologies’ polyurethane foam dispensing unit known as PUDU, was originally developed by the CSIR, is now manufactured, installed and maintained by all cash technologies.
PUDU is installed in the vault area of cash in transit vehicles and ensures that all contents in the vault are protected in the event of an armed attack. There’s no dependency on the crew men to activate the system, as it will deploy automatically if the vehicle is shot at or forced off the road. It can also be activated remotely by the control centre monitoring the vehicles.
When released the foam encapsulates the cash and the vault within seconds of activation. This foam hardens into a solid block, preventing access to the cash.
Should the vehicle be attacked using explosives after the PUDU system has been activated the hardened foam assists in keeping the vehicle intact.
The system is safe and there are no harmful gasses emitted during deployment ensuring that occupants of the vehicle can remain inside during activation.
AllCash Technologies CEO Grahame King says they have also developed a new cross pavement cash protector which is designed to release a special dye which permanently stains the cash if the carrier is forcefully opened.
All cash in transit companies operating in the country have already begun using the technology.
Gauteng MEC for community safety Sizakele Nkosi-Malobane says she is confident that this technology will decrease the amount of cash in transit robberies across the country.
Malobane says she is confident more arrests relating to cash in transit robberies will follow.
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