SACO - Cargo Handling Systems

With air traffic predicted to grow at an average rate of 8% per year, and in some areas even up to 20%, the amount of air cargo flown around will also increase tremendously. As a result, companies involved with air cargo face growing challenges on how to organise this and how to get cargo from and to their customers safely and on time. For this, our company SACO backed by more than 40 years of experience, offers ULD handling solutions ranging from basic systems for manual manoeuvring to fully mechanised and automated systems.

Turnkey cargo handling equipment

From our base in Mierlo, The Netherlands, we design, manufacture and supply turnkey cargo handling equipment and systems based on standard manual and powered conveyor decks, truck docks, dolly docks, workstations, scissor lifts, weighing stations, storage systems incorporating (elevating) transfer vehicles ((E)TV's) and the required control and management IT-systems. With our slave pallet system additional flexibility is given to the handling operation. Due to the modular design of our units, it is easy to move, modify, extend and upgrade an existing system in phases when cargo volumes grow. Users can adjust their investments to their needs.

Integrated hardware / software solutions for air cargo handling

SACO's turnkey approach also enables the supply of cost effective integrated hardware / software solutions for the control and management of air cargo handling and storage systems. Full after sales support, tailor made maintenance solutions and 24-hour service, ensure a high performance standard throughout your system's entire life span.

Our systems have been successfully supplied and commissioned in many European countries, but also in Indonesia, Russia, UAE, India, Canada, Curaçao, Rwanda, and Ethiopia.

Cargo handling systems

SACO Airport Equipment is fully owned by and incorporated into the Smulders Group BV, an industrial engineering and manufacturing group based in The Netherlands. With 1600 employees active in 27 companies based in The Netherlands, Belgium, United Kingdom, Poland, Portugal, Qatar and Abu Dhabi, the group realizes a turnover of EUR 440 million. With the combined facilities of the group, a unique flexibility is available to service our customers with any size of project, be it stand-alone single equipment or large scale integrated projects.

With our structure of small and medium sized companies operating in a group, we enjoy the advantages of having a flat organization with short and direct communication lines, whereas we are also able to handle large projects requiring much manpower and project management. We have fabricated and erected heavy steel structures for petro-chemical, power generation and steel industries in most West European countries as well as in Nigeria, Abu Dhabi, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, steel bridges in the London Docklands and Germany, high-rise buildings in Belgium, Netherlands, Germany (Deutsche Post Hochturm in Bonn) and Qatar.

Football stadiums and airport buildings (eg: Schiphol Freight-8 and Freight-9, Schiphol Plaza, Terminal-3 and D-Pier, Passenger Terminal Liège Airport) in the Netherlands and Belgium. The Smulders group is also a market leader in foundations and support structures for major off-shore wind turbine projects in UK, Ireland, Netherlands, and Denmark.