A New Concept Of Collapsible Air Cargo Container

To ensure safe and secure transport of air cargo to its destination, specifically designed containers/pallets are used. These Unit Load Devices (ULD) are so made that they be light weight and with certain specifications to fit in the aircrafts cargo. A need has always been felt for some improvement and innovation in these ULD’s so as to reduce costs in handling, storage and transport. This is where the new concept comes in place, developed by Avdome Holdings and Dookang Engineering in Seoul.

The salient feature of these ULD’s developed by Avdome Holdings and Dookang Engineering is that it is COLLAPSIBLE. It is also very light weight compared to the traditional ULD’s. Not only this, it comes with an electronic data recorder.

A traditional ULD is like a closed container with certain specifications, made of aluminum or a combination of aluminum and Lexan, with the base of aluminum and walls of Lexan. The Dookang’s ULD is not rigid. It can be collapsed for storage. It is a Full Knock down Kit (FKD) with honeycomb structured fiberglass Reinforced Plastic (FRP). It adds considerable strength by distributing weight evenly of variable sized heavy shipments. To meet customer’s requirements the ULD floor covering can be accomplished in either of the two methods. First, to cover the entire floor with single panel that will provide greatest strength and meet maximum requirement. Secondly, two panels can be cut to fit the floor design allowing easy handling, shipping and storage. Each panel has a permanent color chosen by the customer for identification and material control. Each panel is permanently marked with customer’s identification code to meet FAA guidelines. This new concept will help in solving some of the problems faced by the industry today.

    

                                                                                            

Imbalance happens when there are too many ULD’s at one airport and less in another. For e.g. Korea to USA routes, the cargo leaving from Korea is five times less than the incoming from USA. In order to rectify this imbalance empty ULD’s have to be shipped back to the other airport impending the exchequer more so if an entire aircraft is filled with these empty ULD’s. Avdome-Dookang FKD concept ULD can be assembled and dissembled in minutes, thus the empty ULD’s can be shipped back to USA taking less space in the cargo deck. As an estimate the new concept ULD’s will have a return ratio of 14:1 to 20:1 when fully collapsed. That means ranging from 14 to 20 collapsed ULD’s can be stacked in place of one traditional fully erect non-collapsible ULD. Thus it not only helps in minimizing the imbalance but also helps with storage of additional ULD’s for use during the peak season. Avdome and Dookang’s ULD new concept meets all measures required by FAA.

 It is another major problem the industry is facing. FAA requires that the ULD’s to be airworthy meet the required minimum performance standards. In case there is any slight damage or tear it makes the container un- airworthy. Damage to these ULD’s despite following guidelines is not infrequent. Many cargo companies spend millions of Dollars each year to repair and transport of these un-airworthy containers. According to an estimate repair and maintenance and transport of these ULD’s costs the industry approx. USD220 million per year. Airlines are forced to create large inventory buffers due to the high incidence of damage to the ULD’s. The IATA lays down clear guidelines for handling of the ULD’s to reduce the damages and loss of revenue to aircrafts and cargo companies. But despite all the guidelines laid down the main cause of this high rate of Repair and maintenance is improper handling of ULD’s, poor control of operations and lack of effective track and trace according to the IATA. To one estimate there are around 800,000 ULD’s across the globe and the industry’s loss ratio averages 15-20%. With the new concept of collapsible FRP full knock down ULD of Avdome-Dookang the damaged portion is easily replaced locally in very less time thus reducing the maintenance costs. These ULD’s are nearly maintenance free and will serve for years before being rendered unserviceable. 

 As the peak season arrives from October through December the demand for ULD’s increases, the traditional ULD’s take up a lot of space but these Avdome-Dookang FKD ULD’s will help in storage of additional ULDs for use during peak season.

The Avdome-Dookang container will weigh 25% less than a traditional container. Less weight means fuel saving by the aircraft. Around 4% additional kilos of jet fuel is burnt with every additional Kg of payload. For example, an airline operating an aircraft that fly 3000 hours per year is saving 120 kg of fuel a year per each kilo gram of cargo. Each aircraft is carrying 20 containers and each container weighs around 25 kg less by weight, it will be 20 kg per hour fuel saving. Hence an aircraft flying 3000 hours per year will save 60,000 kg of fuel per year! This means that the aircraft carrying cargo by these new concepts ULD’s will save on fuel, thus saving revenue.

To summarize, Avdome-Dookang’s new concept has the following salient points...

·         New light weight material that weighs 25% less than the traditional container. This will increase revenue by saving on fuel or by carrying additional cargo. So the airlines have all the reason to choose these containers instead of traditional ones.

·         Aluminum composite panel and honeycombed structured Fiber Reinforced Plastic (FRP) with collapsible quality. It is available in all size and types. Frozen, cooling and heating containers are also available.

·         These are easily assembled and dissembled saving on man-hours, increasing storage capacity for additional LDUs during peak time. ULD imbalance is also reduced as almost 20 ULDs can be transferred in place of one traditional ULD.

·         Due to reduced repair and maintenance as these are full knock down (FKD) much revenue is saved by the airlines or Air Cargo. The damaged part or portion is easily replaced locally .These will last for a long time thus reducing the cost of replacing frequently.

      It is equipped with Electronic Data Box that records destination, item description, weight and volume of packages, baggage, mail etc. that significantly saves time required to load an aircraft and ensures that space is fully utilized. It features RFID Reader/writer, a GPRS modem, store package information, automatic calculation of total weight of container, records inside temperature, and location by GPS sensor, altitude, aircraft speed, smoke detector and high temperature sensor etc. In case of a crash a recorder acts as Black box and has an optional battery pack.

Despite stabilizing of fuel prices and realization of need to replace the existing traditional containers, there is a hitch in arranging the finance for replacing the traditional containers. The question remains as to how to finance the change? Avdome-Dookang is working with a global bank for replacing the traditional containers with their new concept containers. It’s a leasing program and airlines do not need to invest in replacement. They will gain the immediate benefit on fuel saving and can pay the cost of container from revenue saved.

With Avdome-Dookang in the ULD scenario with their new concept containers and leasing program, the airlines and air cargo companies and all involved in this industry of managing cargo and ULD’s need not worry as they will surely revolutionize the industry by reducing fuel costs, increasing storage capacity and reducing imbalance .

World's First Green Radial Space Hangar

Aircraft maintenance is essential part of airline industry. There are many MRO facilities in the world with great maintenance hangars and technicians spread in acres of lands. Yet there is a need to improvise in the design, layout and structure to increase the efficiency of maintenance hangars, so that more aircrafts can be tended at a time including increasing the efficiency of mechanics, technicians and other staff.  The Avdome Holdings is working towards a progressive more efficient world class MRO services.

Top architects have contributed in the design, taking into consideration all aspects of a maintenance hangar facility. This maintenance Hangar will have a hangar area, shop area, warehouse area, office/administration and specialty area and building utilities area. The hangar area should have these major functional areas i.e. the main hangar, parts room, engine shop, avionics shop, paints room, that should be easily accessible to the technicians. Easy access is very important in planning the hangar facility as it reduces time moving from one facility to another and thus increases efficiency.

It examined and studied the existing hangars. These are mostly rectangular and only one plane can be moved in and out at a time from the Hangar. This disrupts the work as several other aircrafts too have to be moved to take out the finished plane. Some larger MRO facilities have six to ten two bays large hangars.

Avdome and its architects have done a lot of thinking into its designing so that maximum facility is built in limited area in such a way that many human factors relating to technicians, working environment and ergonomics were considered and taken into account in the architect and design such that everything is available in a short time and distance to the technicians and staff.

It will also offer a complete overhaul, repair and re-configuration of  aircraft interiors like carpet, seats, IFES, Galley, Lavatory, LOPA design and prototyping, CAD modeling, alternation and repairs, certification(FAA & EASA) and last but not the least Testing(impact, cycle, flammability, static test)

The space frame structure design, basically a circular design of the hangar will enable to house four A380s or four B747-8s and 6 NB aircraft at once. This design will save 40% of space compared to the traditional hangar and will enable to build 3 times more space for additional facility. It will have a radial clear span of 100 meters (1,149 ft.), a diameter of 110 meters and a lower chord height of 30 meters. The 28,804 m² and 77,800 m² hangar facility will also enable to provide for component maintenance.

In a traditional rectangular hangar much time is wasted as the workers are time card in for check in and it takes half an hour to go to the task assigned aircraft. Round trip is more than an hour .The hangar’s administrative, spare parts, special tools, consumable parts, coordinating engineering office, spare aircraft parts, drawing, engineering publications etc. will be centrally located which will save time by 20 to 30%. This will increase the efficiency of the staff. Management team can also watch the work performed from its centrally located office. The radial arrangement not only makes more space for aircrafts but also easy accessibility to the work area and tools/engineering/administration area.   It can house not only 4 large bodied aircrafts but will also be able to park 6 narrow bodied aircrafts in  between the larger ones, this way more aircrafts can be tended to at once in a facility without moving any other aircraft . This facilitates all of the workers needs and is designed for the best functional use between the departments.

The total area that each department will hold is as follows:

l  Roof - 18,683 m² space for solar panel & 10,121m² space for sky light panel

l  6F - 18,683 m² - Spare Parts Storage

l  5F - 18,683 m² - Aviation School

l  4F - 18,683 m² - Component MRO

l  3F - 6,945 m² - R & D Center

l  2F - 6,945 m² - Engineering Office

l  1F - 6,945 m² of Tool Rooms & 21,859 m² of aircraft hangar

l  Ground - 6,945 m² – Cafeteria/Equipment Rooms

The hangar will have 45 large arc shaped doors. This will allow lodging in of aircraft with less effort. The doors open in any direction with circumferential rail system. Even narrow bodied aircrafts can be stationed between to large ones.

Maintenance people have to spend a large amount  in ‘looking’ for  parts with extra effort  in identifying  if it is the right part and if it is not than lot of time is spent in roaming around for finding the right part and also leads to formal requisition and purchase order!  The tool room is full of people scrambling around with 1000s of tools being borrowed by mechanics, leading to almost 400 in-out transactions being handled by storekeepers per day. Avdome’s automatic tool rental machine will get rid of crowded rental room .It will be able to trace the tool as to where it is being used. Identifying the right tool will be easy. It will increase job efficiency and reduce man hours.

The supply system is complex with tens of thousands, of parts, pieces, suppliers and inventory stockpiles that lead to an annual expenditure of a typical company to 15% or more of total spend. With many decision-makers with different agendas who are often not in close communication with each other results in higher cost and service gaps. Avdome MRO has a solution for this with its new man-less supply system of consumable parts. It will be able to trace the material, keep a check on how much is used where and who uses it. It will save the material that was over-taken. It will prevent wrong use of material for e.g. use of low temperature grease to high temperature parts, It will also keep check of the work order.

To improve work environment and temperature sensitive products such as paints and adhesives a good heating system is a necessity. Instead of the conventional heating systems Avdome will use water source heat pump system that is 380% more efficient and environment friendly. It saves on cost of energy and also on equipment maintenance.

The closed water loop heat pump system is more energy conserving heating and cooling system for a building. The water loop is a transport system moving heat from where it is not wanted to where it is needed. It is economically more feasible as it saves up to 40% than the conventional air conditioning systems. The water loop reduces or eliminates the need for a separate heating source because it can recover the waste heat from the heat pumps to keep the loop’s source temperature within a target range. The heavy gauge construction of these heat pumps promotes longevity and quite operation.

Solar panels will cover 18,683 m² area and 10,121 m² space for sky light panels on the roof. It will not only be the world’s largest maintenance hangar facility but also environment friendly, doing some good to the earth by utilizing the solar energy. It will reduce the hangars operational costs by significantly reducing its energy use and maintenance costs.

Another achievement by Avdome is in the introduction of digital MRO with world class Korean IT technology. The binary CDMA wireless system allows real time video conferencing between the field, engineering office and airline engineering. Technicians can access the task, work orders and technical documents online on their PDA’s. This is new WPAN (wireless Personal Area Network) technology developed by Korea that combines advantages of CDMA (Code Division Multiple Access) and TDMA (Time Division Multiple Access). Therefore it’s much stronger at static than WLAN, Bluetooth or Zigbee without jamming and also possible to put on high-speed transmission with low power like TDMA. Using ISM (industrial, scientific and medical) Band enables both transmission and reception of data, multimedia and voice in maximum 500m distance without a base station. The world’s first technology specializing in integrated advantages of CDMA and TDMA is a rarely as CDMA and put on high speed transmission and saves power as TDMA. It has various and variable transmission rate 6, 12, and 55 Mbps. Compared to others, it has recognizably superior technology for long-distance wireless transmission in maximum 50 meters distance without a base station.  The innovative wire network realization can be applied to all the digital instruments and high speed transmission allows high definition TV and instant access of aircraft digital manual. This Aircraft MRO binary CDMA wireless system  is patent pending and also this system will be applied to the In-flight entertainment system for the cabin network as there is no radio interference and no noisy and this system has no affect by any kind of obstacle.

This MRO facility by Avdome is not only efficient in terms of number of aircrafts maintained at a time or more energetic and efficient staff but also in terms of saving energy and the environment by having energy efficient water source heat pump systems and water loop for air conditioning and heating, solar energy for power and environment friendly strippers and paint for the painting of aircrafts that will be built in the area of MRO facility.

About ten Patents have been applied for by AVDOME for this MRO concept which will be one of the most sought after MRO services in the near future. It fills the gap in North East Asian countries as well as the South East Asia where the MRO facilities are still nascent.