Baggage handling system

The baggage handling system is a commonly used means of transport in airports for baggage.

Development of the baggage handling system

With the rise of aviation, more and more people used airplanes as means of transport, the planes were getting bigger and airports more complex. Since it was no longer allows passengers to receive their own bags on the apron or leave, and this no longer entered by the introduction of passenger boarding bridge the apron had to be invented a system that baggage first from check-in to the aircraft and after landing to a separate area for re- acceptance of luggage transported by passengers from the aircraft.

The first baggage handling systems consisted mostly of a simple, straight conveyor belt, whose technology was acquired from the open pit. Over time, the plants become more complex and new facilities were - like round belts ( so-called baggage claim carousels ), sorting and parking facilities - had to be introduced to the ever-growing amount of luggage to master.

Principle of operation

Passengers enter their luggage at a counter - the so-called check- in desk - on. A conveyor belt transports this then to a place where it is finally loaded on carts and airport employees who specialize in fast loading and unloading the aircraft.

Conversely, the luggage upon arrival of an aircraft, unloaded from the aircraft and loaded on cars. The cars will be driven to one that is not visible to the passenger collection point. This is often located under the same roof, next to the terminal building. At this point, the luggage on a conveyor belt which then transports the baggage to the interior of the building set. There may the luggage - on the baggage claim belt so-called - are taken from the passengers in reception.

Conveyor technology

In the conveyor system, one must distinguish two basic principles:

• The simple " free" transport of luggage and
• The container handling technology, be transported in the baggage in containers.

Systems with containers

This system can be found for example at Frankfurt airport or in the Munich Airport's Terminal 2. Here, the bags are "married" in the so-called "marriage" with a container. Then the container control then to their destination, wherein the identification of luggage here mounted on the container reflex marks or barcodes works and it can be thus read much more easily than in a system in which the piece of luggage the luggage tag with the target information may be hidden.

Here we must distinguish between active and passive transport units: Affirmative units have a motor and sailing in its route automatically, whereby the conveyor line is actually quite cheap and simple ( easy to maintain ). Passive transport units are driven via belts and / or roles, as a result require a more complex route, but have much more favorable container, as it is often on simple plastic tubs.

The great advantage of the container conveyor system is that an extra sorting is not necessary, since this takes place in a decentralized quasi go ( similar to a car ride from Frankfurt to Munich, where the corresponding branches are taken ). Furthermore, higher speeds than possible with tape and there is less " baggage losses " by falling from tape or snagging. More sensitive pieces of luggage also carry rare damages.

The disadvantages would cost and maintenance effort to call and the problem of empty container, the return must in some way back to check-in. This was thus solved efficiently that the empty container on the way back to take the baggage of arriving passengers at Munich Airport.

This system is only worthwhile at large airports.

Systems without container

This system is found in most of the smaller airports, as it is easy to maintain and inexpensive. Case be transported easily via conveyor belts, chutes and sometimes roles.

For identification of luggage must be read in the barcode scanner gates to the attached to the luggage labels and over again. This is often associated with problems, as to the barcode must be in visual range of the scanner. There are different approaches to sort, worthy of mention are:

• The so-called Pusher (mostly used in the U.S.)
• The cross-belt sorter and
• The tilt-tray that can be found for example in Terminal 1 at Munich Airport.

To sort the baggage, a certain minimum distance between them is often necessary, so that they are separated by short conveyor belts at different speeds. This is also necessary to expedite baggage for example, for a quick tilt tray sorter circuit.

Advantages are especially cost- moderate in nature, whereas the disadvantages are in the maximum flow rate ( 2-3 m / s compared to 12 to 14 m / s at reservoir systems ) ( fall from the band, as well as the high rate of baggage that go into the system lost, stick to corners, before X-ray device tilt & c. ).

Presence

At large airports - as in Frankfurt - are miles of conveyor systems installed and the luggage will be transported individually in tubs to more efficient use of bar coding the equipment to sort baggage to carry faster, redirect and can keep.

At the airport in Kuala Lumpur in the meantime baggage handling system called system consists of bands with a total length of 33 km, which run partly through a mile-long tunnel between the buildings. The trays with the luggage shall be in many installations accelerated up to 40 km / h to reload a piece of luggage from one plane to the next as quickly as possible can.