Crisplant, a leading global supplier of automated baggage handling systems, has announced it will supply state-of-the-art RFID Tunnel hybrid RFID/barcode scanners for installation in New Doha International Airport. This will be the world’s largest installation of hybrid RFID/barcode scanners and is part of the contract, awarded to Crisplant, for the design and installation of the automated baggage-handling system at the new-build Doha International Airport.
Crisplant airport director, Kim Nyborg Carlsen explains; “As only the second, and by far the largest, installation of the new, hybrid-technology RFID Tunnel, Doha will ensure its place at the forefront of state-of-the-art baggage handling, making it one of the most modern and advanced, as well as one of the biggest airports in the world.”
The RFID Tunnel was the first system to combine RFID and barcode technologies into a single unit. As a major break-through in scanner technology, the RFID tunnel arrangement achieves near-perfect read and assignment rates of no less than 99.5%. A total of 12 hybrid RFID Tunnels will be installed on the transfer lines at Doha International Airport, with a further twelve RFID units integrated into the early-storage baggage system. All the units feature dual controllers with full redundancy to ensure maximum availability.
Passenger numbers at the New Doha International Airport are predicted to reach 24 million per year, with an estimated 19,500 items of luggage an hour passing through the baggage-handling system. The new hybrid scanners will help to increase security whilst providing faster transfer times and minimising the number of lost or miss-routed items.
Crisplant is the main contractor for the baggage-handling system at Doha, which comprises high-speed tilt-tray sorters with 28 high-speed inductions and 172 discharge positions. Upper-level control systems include 25 state-of-the-art servers in a fully redundant configuration, with more than 25 workstations and laptops, 88 information monitors, nine video walls and a fully redundant Cisco network. Following the handover, Crisplant will continue to maintain the baggage-handling system as part of a five-year service agreement that was part of the original contract.
In addition to the installation at Doha, Crisplant has also installed the RFID Tunnels at Helsinki Airport and has a system on permanent demonstration at its test centre in Aarhus, Denmark.