Airport Baggage Conveyors
Drivesystems for the airport industry
For many years, Logan Teleflex, which is a segment of Daifuku Airport Technologies, has searched for a distributed control solution for their baggage handling system designs.
Focus on the Customer
For over 70 years Daifuku Airport Technologies, a business division of Daifuku Co., Ltd., has been developing state of the art automated material handling solutions. Daifuku Airport Technologies has forged together BCS Group, Daifuku Logan, Elite Line Services, Jervis B Webb, and Logan Teleflex into a world-class solutions provider for airports worldwide. Our breadth of products and services are coupled with vast knowledge and resources, through our global operations, to provide innovative baggage handling as well as airport operations & maintenance solutions.
Focus on the Project
over 100 gear motors on the baggage handling system supplied by NORD Drivesystems. The many conveyor belts are equipped with either 90.1 series helical bevel or 92.1/93.1 2-stage helical bevel gear motors, many with distributed drive controls.
- Cost-Effective
- Easy to Install
- Easy for Maintenance and Support
Project Challenge
When quoting a recent airport terminal renovation in the U.S., the project had been originally specified with centralised controls. After consulting the project’s baggage handling system consultant, Daifuku elected to present a distributed control solution to the airport after learning of NORD’s solution.
Airport baggage handling systems are intricate arrangements of complex conveyor lines that must operate with precision and reliability. With the ability to customise not only the mechanical side of the project, but also the electronic controls, the NORD solution provides a completely engineered system to meet all of the application needs.
Integrated dynamic brake control is necessary in queue conveyor segments of the baggage handling system. This is needed for rapid starting and stopping of the conveyors as baggage travels through the system. Each NORD motor frame size has a number of available brake sizes and a multitude of options. NORD brakemotors with distributed control AC drives have the brake rectifier integrated directly into the AC drive. This eliminates the need for the standard brake rectifiers and associated brake control relay circuits.
The baggage handling system incorporated hundreds of gear motors. A central control cabinet solution presented the challenge of supplying dedicated motor power wiring to each gear motor throughout the expanse of the conveyor system. This would make for a very time consuming installation and commissioning process.
NORD’s distributed control AC drive solution and M12 quick disconnect receptacles allowed for a simplified installation process. Because of the cost effectiveness of the NORD product and the flexibility to select various options based on the specific system requirements, “we quote NORD almost exclusively on our projects,” says Gary Downs, VP of Sales at Logan Teleflex.
Application Solution
With high quality drive systems that combine gear motors with integrated distributed controls, NORD DRIVESYSTEMS provides both a reliable and cost-effective solution for the special requirements of the airport baggage handling industry. “What really excited us with NORD was that the input/output modules along with the VFD are all integrated with the gearbox,” says Downs. The integrated electro-mechanical drive solution equipped with quick connectors allowed for preassembly at Daifuku’s assembly shop which minimized assembly and field wiring costs. Additionally, this preassembly saved on installation time and commissioning the system.
NORD’s modular design is also beneficial for continued maintenance and support of airport baggage systems. “What really stands out for me with this project was that it was so uneventful. The fewest issues I can recall,” says Aaron Thompson, NORD District Sales Manager. The helical bevel and 2-stage bevel gear motors supplied on this project included NORD’s SK 200E frequency inverters for precision and motion control of the baggage handling system.
The following features were selected in order to provide additional safety measures as well as reduce the hardware and cableing required to wire the baggage system:
Safe Torque Off Safety Circuit (STO): This is an emergency method that removes the 24V power that controls the transistors that produce the pulse width modulated (PWM) output signal for the motor. If the STO circuit is tripped, the frequency inverter will not be able to control the motor until the STO is reset.
DeviceNET™ network control: The AC drive is controlled by a centralised PLC over a DeviceNET™ communication network. This allows for reduced control wiring by eliminating the need for control cable runs to each frequency inverter. Higher resolution feedback from the frequency inverter is also available for the PLC to evaluate.
Local/OFF/Remote Selector Switch: A switch that allows the frequency inverter to be run in a local/manual mode. If ever the DeviceNET™ network is down or the network cable becomes damaged, the AC drive may be put into manual operation via a switch mounted to the AC drive.
