2008-07-23 - KLM’s vast Hangar 14 at Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is the largest airline maintenance building in Europe. Here, the world's aircrafts come for routine health checks and the aviation equivalent of a body scrub and facial - expertly applied by 32 ABB drives.
By ABB Communications
Commercial aircraft are required to undergo a series of regular maintenance checks to ensure compliance with the industry’s rigorous safety standards. Known as A, B C and D checks, they range from monthly overnight checkups at an airport gate (A check) to full-scale strip-downs every four or five years where the plane is taken apart piece by piece (D check).
Hangar 14 specializes in heavy maintenance C and D checks and in stripping aircraft of body paint and redecorating them in the colors and logo of the airline.
The paintshop is just part of Hangar 14, but even so it is larger than a full-size soccer pitch and spacious enough to take two wide-bodied aircraft at a time. It is here that the 32 ABB variable speed drives are at work.
The gondolas and platforms in the state-of-the-art paintshop at KLM’s Hangar 14 not only paint KLM's own fleet of 190 aircraft, but those of other airlines like Air France, Virgin Atlantic and Aeroflot, including special projects like the Russian presidential plane and Virgin’s 21st anniversary Birthday Girl aircraft. Stripping and repainting a jumbo-sized aircraft like a Boeing 747 that is 76-meters long, 19-meters high with a wing span of 68 meters is a complex and challenging process.
Both operations are performed by hand and require staff to have full working access to every square centimeter of the airplane exterior.
This is made possible via a system of eight giant gondolas and 12 telescopic platforms which move along a series of overhead rails. The platforms can move from gondola to gondola and rail to rail and can rotate on their axis, thereby enabling staff to work on the entire aircraft.
The 32 ACS800 variable speed drives control the speed, torque and energy consumption of the motors that power the platforms and gondolas. They enable the platforms to move slowly, smoothly and with exceptional accuracy – a key safety requirement as there are intentionally no security bars on the platforms, to allow workers to get as close as possible to the aircraft's metal skin.
ABB was able to equip the drives with IP55 protection against dust and water jets (few suppliers provide this technical option) as well as advanced software developed by ABB for giant yard and quay crane systems, a market and technology that ABB dominates.
ABB was selected by GTI, a leading provider of technical services in the Benelux countries, who were contracted to revamp the platform drive system.
Customer benefits:
- Complete variable speed drive solution from the world’s leading supplier of drives
- Exceptional accuracy and dynamic capability of drives
- IP55 protection
- Unique and proven software developed by ABB for crane systems
- Extensive customer support services
- Long-standing relationship with GTI
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