Schiphol (Netherlands)
Schiphol Airport is the largest and most important airport in the Netherlands. Situated near Amsterdam, it is an important air traffic hub.
With 71.1 million passengers per year and 350 destinations served worldwide, Schiphol Airport is the third largest airport in Europe and the eleventh largest in the world.
Nine years ago, Forbo Movement Systems started to collaborate with the OEM who supplied the baggage handling systems and started the Amp Miser project at Schiphol Airport.
The goal was/is to substantially reduce the energy consumption of the baggage conveyors – and to document this reduction.
Due to a significantly reduced coefficient of friction, Amp Miser belts make an impact where energy losses in a conveyor are usually the greatest: in the friction between the bottom of the belt and slider bed. By adding patented Texglide to the underside fabric, a smooth layer is created that permanently acts like a dry lubricant and therefore minimizes energy consumption.
The first step in the Schiphol measurement and documentation project was to measure the energy consumption on a selected conveyor (arrival belt) equipped with a standard Siegling Transilon baggage conveyor belt E 8/2 U0/V15 LG-SE black.
Our Amp Miser E 8/2 TX0/V15 LG-SE-AMP black belt was then fitted to the same conveyor with exactly the same elongation at fitting in order to generate the same conditions for the measurements through the same axial forces or bearing forces.
At the beginning of 2016, a second test with the new generation of Amp Miser baggage handling belts was started. A 3,400mm long and 1,000mm wide belt (E 10/2 TX0/V15 LG-SE-AMP black) was installed.
During the first 5 years in operation (first generation Amp Miser belts), the motor’s power consumption did not increase. After this long period in operation, the friction coefficient on the underside of the belt remained at a consistently low level. The energy savings were 32%.
The standard E 8/2 U0/V15 LG-SE black belt’s power consumption under load was 1603 watts. By comparison, with Amp Miser, power consumption was 953 watts, only. The energy savings were 40%.
To date, after 3 years, there was no rise in the power consumption for Amp Miser (a virtually constant 954 watts) and therefore we can state, there is no change in the friction of coefficient on the underside.