JUNE 2013 GROUND HANDLING INTERNATIONAL
Ahkera takes bag handling to new heights
Packing airline containers and bag trolleys is old-fashioned work. One wide body flight alone can have over 5 tonnes of hand packed bags. Hard, repetitive work in the baggage halls is a major health and safety issue and the facts are that only a few are able to make a career out of handling baggage and retire with an old age pension. Ahkera Smart Tech has an answer to this health and safety issue with its working, fully automated packing technology. As the first in the world to productionise this innovation, Ahkera has the ability to produce airline containers and bag trolleys filled to the brim at a continuous packing pace. Airport, airline and ground handler
representatives agree that automated packing is the way of the future. However, there have been challenges in creating a solution that is able to fill containers fully. Manual topping has been needed to bridge the gap, and this has had an effect on both packing speed and the need of personnel to
ensure a result that is at capacity. Ahkera has solved these issues of
earlier robotic and automation trials with a solution that can automatically fill containers (AKE, AKH and others) and bag trolleys. Thanks to its ingenious dual patented innovation, Ahkera has two container/trolley stations and can continue to pack one while the other is being exchanged. It takes only ten minutes to fill an AKE to a capacity of 35 or 40 bags; and it’s all untouched by human hand.
The solution is easy to bolt on to many of the existing baggage halls, and provides an effective method to modernise and add throughput to current baggage hall operations. Ahkera-assisted baggage handling will need less manual labour and less facility space, thereby enabling both savings and growth.
Ahkera decided to use applied
robotics to create the solution, as components are very robust and well tested in many fields of industry. CEO Harri Ruoslahti notes that baggage handling is a critical process and the Ahkera solution has been designed
Kansai airport to gain from Aviramp Continental
Swissport’s Japan-based operation at Kansai International has taken delivery
RAMP EQUIPMENT NEWS 41
to be very reliable. “The process with Ahkera will be smooth and predictable.” Ahkera’s proprietary software family, MaxSmart, OptiSmart and SecuSmart, guide the unit’s own, well-tested buffer system for optimised bag and container/ trolley processes, and the intelligent movements of the patented dynamic packing method for a maximised packing result. “I believe that our intelligent software sets us apart from the rest of the field,” he states. In this manner, the cost of a bag handled can be dropped to as low as one tenth, says the manufacturer.
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