Kunming airport enters testing phases with its US$75 million investment in new main baggage handling and baggage transit systems

Logan KSEC, a member of the Daifuku Group, reports that the main baggage handling project for the brand new terminal facility at Kunming, China’s fourth largest airport, is undergoing CAAC testing prior to going live by July 2012.

Benefitting from Logan’s revolutionary and highly flexible Tilt Tray Sorter, the entire baggage system spans a total conveyor length of more than 13 km and will sort, x-ray and make up bags feeding from over 150 check-in desks. Main features of the project include two large Logan Teleflex Tilt Tray Sorters, measuring a total length of over 580 metres; 11 make-up carousels and 15 arrivals carousels. The system is managed using BagStage software and has a 26 PLC-based control system.

At the same time, Logan Teleflex is delighted with progress being made on the structured installation programme for the iDCV (Intelligent Destination Coded Vehicle) based baggage transit system. When it’s operational later this year, the iDCV will provide high speed transfer of bags between Kunming’s main bag hall and its East and West piers, typically at 10m/s, and will minimise baggage connection times for the remote 800 metres distance to the piers.

According to Dave Reynolds, Sales Director for Logan Teleflex: ’’The first high speed circuit for the iDCVs has been completed with the second identical circuit for No 2 pier shortly to follow. We will be testing around 20 iDCVs on the first circuit to begin with, leading up to main operational status as we ramp up the throughout before the entire two circuit system goes live in Q3 this year.’’

He added: ‘’Both East and West pier transit tunnels required steelwork to be erected for the iDCV circuit to be raised to a higher level to allow vehicle and personnel access to the tunnels at ground level. By taking this approach, we gave Kunming’s operators greater flexibility in not only providing access to airport personnel in the non passenger areas, but for vehicles to pass through to carry spares and oversize baggage from the central two story Departures and Arrivals area. The two piers extend outward from the central area in the shape of aircraft wings.’’

Logan Teleflex won a follow on order to install what is the first intelligent destination coded vehicle (iDCV) baggage transit system to operate in China bringing the combined contracts for the main Tilt Tray Sorter based baggage handing system, iDCV transit and Tote Return systems to around US$75 million.

“This is a break through application for our intelligent DCV technology. It will demonstrate that where Minimum Connection Time [MCT] is a priority no other technology can provide the speeds and reliability required to achieve their goals. This 10 m/s, 2,840 bags per hour system is already attracting the attention of other airports in China and we know of many other applications worldwide that could benefit from similar systems,” says Dave Reynolds..

Background to the iDCV transit system for Kunming

The advanced design of the looped system enables transit baggage to travel directly on the DCVs from the main bag hall through dedicated tunnels to remote piers 1 and 2. This local direct delivery of bags to make-up positions close to the flight stands will achieve the MCT goals for the new airport, which is not only China’s fourth largest and the main hub for southern China, but is a gateway to the rest of Southeast Asia.

The system is highly efficient as it automatically routes bags after sorting to the appropriate terminal pier with the DCVs discharging bags to the correct chute. Once all bags are discharged, the DCVs return at high speed to the main bag hall where they are reloaded. This minimizes the number of DCVs required in the system.

The system has been developed to be the best and most cost effective solution for covering long distances between terminals. At Kunming, the remote piers are 800 metres away from the main bag hall and bags need to get to the connecting flights as quickly as possible. There are many special features built into the system that enable this to happen. For example, the linear motors are driven through effectively an ‘electronic gearbox’ which enables the carts to operate effectively through a range of speeds which easily achieves 10 m/s and has the capability to exceed this speed. The relatively high ratio of metres of track to number of carts in this application also makes the iDCV a cost effective solution for this application.

-ENDS -

Sales – please contact:

Dave Reynolds, Logan Teleflex UK on telephone 44 (0) 1482 785677

Or, e-mail marketing@loganteleflex.com

For press enquiries: please contact Gary Lillistone, Bridge PR Ltd. on tel: 024 76520025 or e-mail: garyl@bridgepr.co.uk  

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