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“New Departure for Baggage Handling” Background Have you
ever boarded an aircraft, just hoping and praying that your baggage has also
made it safely onto the same flight? It’s a dilemma airport authorities
increasingly face, especially as statistics show that more and more people are
taking to the skies. The problem is further compounded by stringent security
checks on baggage in an effort to combat air terrorism! Such
considerations were taken into account by the management of East Midlands
Airport during the planning phase of a new £10 million, state-of-the-art
Departures Terminal. They wished to increase the airport’s capacity from 1.9
million to 3 million passengers a year, but retain the operational effectiveness
of one of the UK’s leading domestic/international airports. To handle the
additional major volume of people, the new Terminal was equipped with 32
check-in desks, airline offices and the most advanced baggage handling system of
its kind. Consisting of 150 conveyors, 100% Hold Baggage Screening (HBS) and
‘smart’ screening - the whole arrangement is a world first!
The
Problem Planning
for a major increase in passenger traffic, also means accounting for a
substantial increase in people’s baggage. The baggage handling system at EMA
is configured centrally by FactoryLink SCADA software. The SCADA system had to
be configured so that it could process efficiently up to 2,400 bags an hour
through three main levels of separation and screening prior to loading onto the
aircraft. The management also required a reporting procedure that would give
them up to date and comprehensive operational information on baggage throughput. Solution Main
contractor, Logan Fenamec drew upon parent company, the Fabricom Group, and, in
particular, the systems integration skills and experience of Automation
Software Engineering
(ASE) for the software engineering tasks. It was ASE’s
responsibility to provide bespoke software for the FactoryLink package, and for
ensuring the system worked to its optimum level of baggage throughput,
separation and screening. ASE’s
initial task was to produce a MIMIC of the conveyor actions, alarm logs and
report information from the original Logan Fenamec line build drawings. The
150-conveyor system was drawn on AutoCAD and exported as DXF files. This eased
development time in building an animated image of the systems’ layout, as ASE took full advantage of their knowledge of FactoryLink by
converting the DXF files to GX files and to FactoryLink standard. The
conveyor animation was fully tested by ASE
engineers ahead of its installation at East Midlands, a major benefit for
electrical engineers in commissioning the main control panel. They were able to
rely on the SCADA system's animated images to prove the functionality of the
system, especially helpful, as some of the conveyors were difficult to access
for visual inspection. |
