Dubai Airport, defeats the ravages of sand and salt with 650 Transnorm XXL Curves

The worlds major airports attract and impress us with their spacious air conditioned terminals and their ability to cater for the latest and largest aircraft.

Equally important and almost as spectacular are the kilometres of ‘invisible’ baggage handling system that the travelling public never see, but without which their journey would be far less impressive

Transnorm has played an integral part in those systems for decades supplying belt curves to international airports around the world
The Transnorm Belt Curve has always met the high demands required of it, running trouble free 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, in many hostile environments

At Dubai International, an airport, situated between a desert and an ocean, subjected to wind borne sand, salt and temperatures in excess of 40°C, the requirements of the baggage handling system had to be completely redefined.

These requirements set a new standard and a challenge that Transnorm took to develop their proven product to a new level.

The demands placed on baggage handling systems at airports are harsh: Precise time slots, high passenger volume and limited transfer times allow no concessions on performance and reliability. Downtimes are measured in minutes

Belt curve conveyors allow baggage handling systems to work in more confined spaces by turning the line to suit the contours of the building.
Curve angles range from 30° to 180° and a spiralled curve can solve two problems, by both turning and lifting.

All of these requirements have been met by Transnorm on airport systems all over the world, but Dubai presented problems of its own.
As well as coping with the harsh climate conditions, baggage weights of up to 50kg per person have to be allowed, with dimensions to match.

Dubai’s flag carrier, Emirates also aims at 100% flight plan reliability, so a belt curve breakdown during peak times would cause big problems
Previous belt curves from other manufacturers had failed after only a few years, leading the Dubai airport authority to post the most stringent curve specifications bidders had ever seen when requesting tenders for their new terminal 3 building.

In order to prove the reliability of the curve, before their decision to purchase, the Dubai authorities set up a test loop in ambient desert conditions and ran the curves for 12 months carrying 60kg baggage 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Curves endured sand, salt and temperatures which varied from +50°C to zero

Transnorm came through it all with flying colours and the 650 units installed in terminal 3 are to be joined by others, taking the place of competitors curves in the other two terminals.

Although we at Transnorm are calling this unit the ‘Desert Curve’, our experience in one of the most hostile environments in the world has bred a new generation of curves suitable for environments that our competitors can only dream of.

Transnorm also has over 1200 curves installed with BAA including the prestigious Terminal 5 at London’s Heathrow, but we don’t only supply to airports. Our success supplying major courier service providers, distribution warehouses and depots puts Transnorm Curves in a world class of their own – manufactured in three continents from factories in Germany, Malaysia and Texas, USA