Clean sweep
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Posted Date: 16/06/2008
Issue: Airside International June 2008
Publication: Airside International
Runway inspections to check for foreign objects and debris, as well as rubber build up, are often conducted manually, which can cause disruptions to flight operations. Quicker methods for cleaning and sweeping runways, together with innovative ways to inspect them for any foreign objects and debris – such as a part fallen from an aircraft, a detached runway light fitting, rocks, wildlife and building materials – are to be applauded.
Foreign objects and debris pose a serious perennial hazard to aircraft operations and passenger safety. Aircraft repairs, flight delays and airport maintenance stemming from foreign objects and debris cost the global aerospace industry an estimated $4 billion a year.
That is why Stratech Systems, a worldwide company specialising in advanced technology and “intelligent vision”, has designed a special runway surveillance and foreign objects and debris detection system.
Founded in 1989, Stratech has served an impressive range of industries, including aerospace and defence, healthcare, financial services and Homeland Security and Transportation. Its intelligent vision technologies are not only deployed in Singapore, where the company is based, but in the US, Australia and Europe.The system, known as iFerretTM can detect and classify foreign objects and can even pinpoint their exact location 24 hours a day. It is the world’s first intelligent vision-based system of foreign object and debris detection being used in the civil aviation industry and has in-built mechanisms such as self-calibrating cameras and a configurable scan resolution to identify different size objects.
Earlier this year the first contract for the system, valued at more than $12 million, was awarded by the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). The iFerretTM is expected to be deployed along runways 1 and 2 at Singapore’s Changi Airport at the end of this year.
Lim Kim Choon, Director-General and Chief Executive Officer of CAAS, says: “The prevention of foreign objects and debris incidents has always been a priority at Changi Airport. For example, the frequency of our runway inspections already exceeds guidelines set by the International Civil Aviation Organisation. iFerretTM will enable us to automate these inspections and set even higher standards in operational efficiency and passenger safety.”
Particularly laudable is that the system can be used worldwide as it has an automated device that adjusts depending on the local climate so that it is able to operate even in extreme weather conditions. It can be scaled for airport runways and taxiways of any length and can also be deployed on airport aprons, airport hangars and even aircraft carriers.
“iFerretTM represents cutting edge runway surveillance technology and we hope that it will pave the way for improving safety standards at airports worldwide,” says David Chew, Executive Chairman of Stratech. “With iFerretTM, air traffic and ground operations staff can visually assess foreign objects identified on a remote screen display without making a physical visit. To have iFerretTM deployed at our very own Changi Airport is testament to its performance and reliability.”
Its detection capabilities are so sophisticated that it can even detect the smallest of objects such as debris and it can scan an entire runway that is up to 4.5km long in about two minutes.
Surprisingly, one common hazard that Stratech works to eliminate for airports is bird strikes. Birds flying in a flock can cause damage to aircraft engines and windscreens but Stratech’s surveillance system can efficiently detect the presence of animals and vehicles and give planes sufficient warning to avoid them.
Chew says there is still an inadequate amount of automated surveillance today in the airfield because all too often surveillance is associated with security over flight safety. “Safety is a big issue for airports,” he says. “I travel a lot so safety is close to my heart. I think people are paying a lot of attention to safety from a security standpoint but there’s the safety of flying which is just as important, especially as we are faced with more crowded skies.
“We have economies on the verge of meltdown and even the airline industry has been limping along and sometimes it makes you wonder if some of the airlines have enough financial resources to do the minimum [safety requirements] on the aircraft and to support facilities.”
So does he think there will be any major challenges for making the iFerretTM success?
“We have been running a pilot system at Changi Airport since April 2006 and it was a very thorough process and a good testing ground,” says Chew. There are clearly challenges ahead as it is still early days for the use of automated detection but I am confident it will take off.”
But he is not complacent as he’s aware there are other innovative companies that have been around a long time before Stratech’s inception.
“We know we are the new boy on the block but we’re also confident we have great innovations. So rather than compete head on with established players we would rather team up with them. This strategy calls for partnering with global industry players and market leaders in various geographic areas. A company can never be big enough to be everywhere. It takes time and that’s why we don’t want to be reinventing the wheel.”
From debris to rubber
Rubber build up is a growing problem for many airports because of the increasingly crowded skies, and it’s a particular a problem during hot weather conditions.
At London Luton Airport, passenger numbers have grown nearly 400% in the last decade. It handled 10 million passengers last year alone. The airport, which has been operating for almost 70 years, gives passengers the option to fly to more than 90 destinations worldwide and more than 40 new routes have been opened in the last two years. Therefore, runway surveillance is going to become even more sophisticated to cope with the increased pressure from an explosion in demand.
Andrew Judge has been working as an Operations Director for Luton Airport for 18 months and he has been in the airport industry for about 10 years. With his role comes the responsibility of managing the day-to-day running of the airport, from airfield management to noise control right through to health and safety.
He says Luton Airport removes rubber on the runways about twice a year to maintain friction for braking purposes. “Rubber can build up,” he says. “It depends on the amount of traffic we have. We use an environmentally-friendly detergent that dissolves rubber. We have a number of inspections daily to monitor rubber build up on the runway. We have staff watching for it but we also have a friction tester which goes down the runway to measure the friction and see whether it is not as good in some conditions as others.”
How reliable is the friction tester and what qualities does Judge look for in the machine?
“We ensure we have more than one friction tester in case it breaks down. There are two companies that produce a product that we could use. We want to select equipment that not only does the job well and is cost effective but that has good maintenance backup.”
He adds: “It needs to be relatively straightforward to use. When we buy the product we buy the service package that includes maintenance and training. When I’m buying a mechanical piece of equipment, I want people to be trained because staff, particularly on airside, need to know what they’re doing as safety is important.”
Sweeping and washing
Beam Sweepers, based in Denmark, has been designing and manufacturing a range of specialist truck mounted sweepers and high pressure washing equipment to meet businesses’ cleaning needs for more than 35 years. It has a distribution network covering every continent of the world and has delivered machines to more than 30 countries in the last five years, including Germany, Russia, the US, Jordan, Thailand and Hong Kong. Around 95% of its business is export.
Beam has two sweeper products for airports. The runway sweeper has a sweeping speed of up to 40km per hour. It is mostly used by the military for removal of foreign objects and debris and clearing damaged runways. Military jets are more susceptible to damage caused by foreign objects and debris, but it does have an application for civilian runways. The other product – a multi-task sweeper –is of modular design and provides a range of options for airport customers so that it is tailored to their needs. It is used for cleaning parking stands, runway rubber removal, and cleaning taxiways, aprons, perimeter roads and runways – but at a lesser speed than the dedicated runway sweeper.
Peter Rhodes, Managing Director at Beam, says of the multi-task sweeper: “We have a Lego set of different modules that customers can choose from – these include different power packs, sweeping gear and waste product removal modules. The multi-task product is often used at the airport stand for cleaning oil spills. It has a lesser speed than our dedicated runway sweeper but it can be used for many more applications. Both kinds of sweeper have different benefits to them.”
He says that the demand for runway rubber removal at airports is continuing to increase.
“It is difficult to remove rubber from runways and it’s growing as an item. This is because of the increasing number of planes coming in and also because the requirements to maintain runway friction are being tightened year after year. I doubt that 15 years ago many people would have been so worried about runway friction levels but it now appears to be a number one concern.”
The need to protect the environment is an equally high priority. There are two main methods used to clean runways: the use of ultra high pressure (UHP) water and the use of a chemical agent. Beam’s customers use a range of chemicals – some relatively non-aggressive – together with high pressure water, which leaves minimal residue.
“The problem people find with UHP is the damage that it inevitably does to the runways,” says Rhodes. “The possible environmental impact of a chemical is also a concern. The design of our machines focuses heavily on ensuring as little chemical residue as possible remains after the process. For this we use high pressure washing, possibly using hot water combined with powerful suction.”
Truck mounted sweepers and washing equipment for niche applications are important industry assets. After all, without properly maintained runways and taxiways, disruption to flight operations is the least we can expect. At worst, there is a risk to safety.
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