First Class Baggage Handling
The Customer
Sydney Kingsford Smith Airport is one of the oldest continuously operated airports in the world and the busiest airport in Australia. This international airport is located 8 km south of the city centre, in the suburb of Mascot in Sydney, New South Wales.
Our Partners
Caprice Engineering who is specialized in air site fabrication and JL Robertsons who was the nominated distributor.
The Challenge
Caprice Engineering has been working with Sydney Airport as part of a contract to refurbish and redesign the airports luggage carousels. This involved creating a system which would effectively improve the manual handling and transporting of luggage from the airport gates to the aircraft. The airports current dated baggage handling system faced numerous challenges. One particular challenge was the potential for baggage to become entrapped and lodged in the slide (pictured on the right) resulting in further downtime and delays in flights.
The Solution
As part of the solution Pacific Hoists designed a custom built 900kg Comeup Electric CEP winch that fitted to the new design structure created by Caprice Engineering. This winch features a quieter running dB rated motor unit to reduce noise levels; dual rope payout with a longer drum length to accommodate extra rope storing capacity than a standard CEP winch. It also contains a specific built and modified lower gear ratio box including a high torque motor to meet the lift speed required and this is all controlled through a VSD-variable speed drive that provides specifically designed speed control to the winch to raise and lower the luggage carrier from the departure gate to the aircraft.
Customer Feedback
To date Caprice Engineering has installed 12 CEP winches supplied by Pacific Hoists, of which the 12th installation took place recently in December 2013 on Gate 33. Further installations are expected over the upcoming year.