“They’re trying to get 100 percent elimination of everything down to as small as possible because the cost of one FOD event is astronomical.”īrian Giles, product manager for Schwarze Industries said air sweepers remove all materials from the flats and grooves. “Where there US military is operating extremely expensive aircraft like the B1 Lancer, they go to this technology versus any other one,” he said. continues to see friction mat style sweeper in demand in critical use scenarios, such as runways. The vacuums, the rotary brushes, nothing comes close to that, especially when it comes to small FOD.” “The efficacy of friction mat sweepers still can’t be beaten by any of the other technologies,” he said. Some operators don’t like the manual process related to cleaning out the mats after use, but Hughes said it’s an incredibly effective tool compared to other cleaning technologies. Hughes said FOD drag mats are still very popular with airports because there’s no maintenance and easy to use and understand. “They tend to break down, they’re very proprietary, so fixing them is not as easy as you might think,” he said. Hughes said finding the right sweeper depends on the size of the facility, the condition of the runways, the operating environment and the criticality of the operations.Īutomatic runway sweepers continue to be a popular choice for crews, he said, because they’re easy to operate, however, airport administrators are less happy with the technology. “Until you have a large established group on which to base your purchase decisions, you’re putting yourself at risk by adopting these newer technologies,” he said. Some airports are also hesitant to spend money on a new FOD solution before there’s already an issue. said airports have been slow to adopt it due to the cost and complexity. While FOD detection systems have come on the scene in recent years, Garth Hughes, general manager of The FOD Control Corp. “So we’ve rotated between each ramp and invited everybody, all our tenants and do a FOD walk on each ramp to get an idea of what challenges each ramp has and to get out there and understand the challenges we do have with FOD.”Īiling said to look at the type of FOD you’re seeing at your airport along with additional restraints on the airfield before considering a sweeper device. We’ve got an air carrier ramp, a GA ramp and a cargo ramp,” he said. This includes talking about retrieving FOD, reporting it and picking it up. “Once you back the truck up, you adjust the height and it’s pretty much set to go,” he said.Īiling said all badge employees at HSV go through driver training in non-movement area. It’s being pulled by a standard pickup truck and the lack of additional noise raises situational awareness. Tow-behind units are a lot simpler to operate than a sweeper truck, Ailing said, making training easier. It uses a mechanical effort to toss debris into a hopper, which he said works better with larger pieces of FOD. They also purchased a FOD Master several years ago and a Victory Sweepers T600. HSV has two sweeper trucks to perform regular maintenance. “We’ve been highlighting that to tenants as well as internally as that has been a focus area on keeping an eye on that and keeping it under control.” “We’ve seen a decrease in the total number of FOD over the last several years,” he said. Michael Ailing, operations supervisor for HSV, said the airport sees plastic wrap and parts from pallets appearing as FOD at the airport, so they work with tenants and staff to educate them on the issue and reduce debris. Huntsville International Airport (HSV) has a high volume of cargo traffic utilizing its facilities, creating unique FOD challenge for an airport its size.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |