The World’s Most Advanced Airport Artery

     gigantic dragon, the T3, has the world’s most advanced baggage handling system (BHS): it can handle 19,200 pieces of baggage every hour; with the 68-mile transmission strap and the speed of 40 miles per hour, it can rapidly convey bagged everywhere as needs in the airport. It only took two and a half years to finish the construction of the prominent baggage system which cost RMB2 billion. The project executive, Siemens group, has completed exerted the talent and energy of everyone involved.
 
With the rapid development of China economy, the two old terminals could no longer meet the demands of increasingly numerous passengers. It’s anticipated that the number of passengers of capital airport will rise to 60 million every year by 2015. A new terminal has to be built in Beijing, so as to adapt to the economy development and the Olympic Games’ success. Therefore, the gigantic architecture has been designed especially for the sharply developed economy. As one of the world’s largest single terminal, what’s the major structure? “As a matter of fact, the BHS of T3 is much more like a miracle than the architecture itself. It’s definitely one of the most advanced baggage handling system.” Jeff Martin says, the project president of airport logistics department of Siemens industry system and technology service group.
 The unbelievable project has been finished in Beijing—the world’s largest airport single architecture - T3. It has 175 escalators, 437 electrical passages and 445 elevators. Meanwhile the T3 with seven floors is also the world’s largest public space. Amazingly the roof looks like the dragon squama, and in the stomach of the huge dragon, lies the world’s most advanced baggage handling system (BHS). It captures the history and the bright future of China, and comparing to any large scale airports in the world, the scale of it is absolutely the No.1. For instance, the T5 of London’s Heathrow Airport owns the largest BHS of European single terminals, which could handle 12,000 pieces of baggage per hour and take 30 million passengers a year. Relatively Beijing’s T3 can handle 19,200 pieces of baggage per hour and take 50 million passengers a year. More than that, London took almost 20 years to finish the construction of T5, but it just took Beijing two and a half years.

 Picture 1: The panorama of T3’s BHS
 
Highly integrated IT solution
 The BHS of T3, costing 2 billion adopts the most advanced international automatic sorting and high-speed transmission system. The BHS is constituted with baggage handling system of input, transfer and output, baggage empty reverse system, handing in baggage in advance system. It covers about 120,000 m2; the whole length is 68 km; the transmission speed is 10 m per second, and it covers three part including T3A, T3B and the tunnel. In order to meet the needs of 124 airplanes during rush hours and the landing and taking off of every 30 seconds, the T3’s BHS is able to handle 19,200, transfer 7,500 and check in 3,000 pieces of baggage every hour. Both the investing scale and the technologies are all way too far beyond these of other mechanism system equipments and Low Voltage system.

Picture 2: Mr. Jeff Martin

Mr. Jeff indicated that the success of BHS is derived from the intense integration of Baggage Base IT, CCTV, Security system, RFID, WinCC and S7 400 PLC control. “Baggage Base IT is specially provided for BHS by Siemens, which possesses the IT integrated solutions including design validation, automatic sorting, system analysis, fault analysis, solution optimization. Based on the Siemens TIA, it utilizes the IT system thoroughly through the whole dragon like terminal.

  Picture 3: High-speed tray system and Transmission strap
BHS is composed of 30km strap transmission system and 38 km High-speed tray system. The creative two-layer design bravely made by the Siemens group leaded by Mr. Jeff obviously doubled the whole capacity, but this design also needs more equipment space. Through Siemens group’s hard work and capital airport’s support, the basement of T3 gained precious 5 meters higher. The handling capability of BHS handing in advance reached 3,000 pieces, which is almost the number during rush hours of a medium-sized airport. After the operation of T3, baggage can be sent to baggage sorting turnplate within 4.5 minutes due to the high-speed BHS, which improved the baggage handling efficiency so much. 

 Picture 4: the perfect match of Siemens BHS Solution and BCIA demands
The T3 represents the rising of China’s economy; it’s the brand and symbol all Chinese people can be proud of, and also the stage for Siemens to present its outstanding strength. Actually if we view the world’s primary large-sized airports, Siemens is everywhere, such as Kennedy International Airport, Frankfurt International Airport, Pudong International Airport, Hong Kong International Airport, Macao International Airport, Korea Inchon Airport and so on. Siemens also has the unique advantage that the Siemens Airport Laboratory located near Nuremberg, occupying 8,500 square meters, which is the first simulating airport with the function of creation, design and test for airport business executives and airlines. It assembles the specialties of every business fields of Siemens; is integrated to be the system of airport logistics and basic structure; and provides the excellent and unapproachable advanced solutions.