Beginning work on T3IB in March 2013, The Automated Technology Group was tasked with commissioning and supervision, including modification and updating of the Vanderlande Industries standard software library. After comprehensive testing, the first ‘live’ bags were processed by the system in March this year.
T3IB is a state-of-the-art baggage facility that handles all of Terminal 3’s direct and transfer baggage under one roof. The building’s bag store – which has capacity for 4,800 bags – allows airlines to offer passengers an early check-in option and the whole project secures faster and more reliable baggage connections for passengers.
Explained Simon Fatkin, Principal Controls Engineer for The Automated Technology Group, “This project has been huge in both scale and complexity. Among other items, it included extensive conveyor and Tubtrax baggage-handling systems, safety systems, a hold baggage screening interface, crane pick and drop areas, Tubtrax loaders/unloaders, batch building for aircraft loading, an interface to the robotic loading systems and the sorter interface. The project also involved modification of existing baggage systems in order to integrate T3IB with the rest of the airport.”
The Automated Technology Group project team has averaged ten people over the two-year period. The group now has a smaller crew working on T3IB to monitor and improve performance, while the rest of the team has been redeployed on satellite projects for T3 arrivals (carousel refurbishment) and T3 Existing Baggage Hall (phased refurbishment of check-ins and new lines bringing T3 departure bags into T3IB) – work that will continue through the course of this year.
