Handling system cuts energy and noise

The Friction Drive Carousel is constructed from the latest lightweight but hardwearing materials, giving excellent performance for extended periods.

BAA commissioned Sheffield based handling company Geo Robson and Co to supply and install the baggage handling system from check in to airside loading at Southampton Airport.

The installation included the weighing facility at check in and the X-ray security scanning, plus 20 individual conveyors were used to complete the system, transporting the baggage to the make up carousel.

The make up carousel is where the bags are sorted for the flights and loaded on to the trolleys for transfer to the aircraft.

With the layout of Southampton Airport the makeup carousel needed to be over 100m in length.

To achieve this, Robson designed and installed the latest Friction Drive Carousel.

The Southampton installation is unique in so far as the Friction Drive Carousel was installed in two parts.

First, a carousel half the overall length was installed and commissioned.

This enabled operations at the airport to continue while the other half of the carousel was constructed and made ready for connection in to the first half.

The two halves were joined on a planned down day, to ensure the continuity of the airport was not interrupted.

According to Adrian Brown, Robson, Business Development Manager Airports: "A good challenge with most of the installation work taking place on night shift, and using planned down days for the major works, we completed the installation well ahead of schedule".

The Friction Drive Carousel, one of Robson's latest products, is constructed from the latest lightweight but hardwearing materials, giving excellent performance for extended periods.

With speed and ease in mind, the design of the Friction Drive Carousel is modular so replacing worn components is easily achievable and quickly accomplished, minimising the need for costly downtime maintenance.

A biplaner chain enables the carousel to incline and decline, enabling the carousel to be used in uneven areas.

Robson fulfilled the customer led design brief, which included energy saving, energy usage reduced by half used by conventional carousels, lower noise emissions and low component lead-time.

Southampton International Airport is owned by BAA, the world's leading airport company, which also owns, Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Glasgow, Edinburgh and Aberdeen.

Southampton International Airport is one of Europe's fastest growing airports.

Serving over 47 destinations and over 1.9 million passengers per year, speed and reliability of the baggage system is critical to the smooth operation of the airport.

Robson has many years experience of the airport industry, coupled with a solid working relationship with BAA, Robson has supplied and installed conveyor systems in most UK airports plus airport installations worldwide.

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