Optimal drive solution for Gatwick Airport in London

  • Luggage transportation system with MOVIGEAR® at Gatwick Airport in London

    The London airport reduces energy costs with over 1,500 MOVIGEAR® mechatronic drives. The optimal drive solution for a sustainable future.

Gatwick Airport is experiencing constantly rising passenger numbers. The existing luggage transportation systems in the North and South Terminal were expanded in order to cope with this increase.

Gatwick Airport reduces energy consumption with MOVIGEAR®

Gatwick Airport expanded its luggage transportation systems as part of an investment program of about 1 billion pounds. Increasing passenger numbers meant that Gatwick was looking to increase the capacity of the luggage transportation system to over 24 million passengers per year (it now transports over 30 million passengers every year). Several factors apart from the reliable functioning of the drive units were important to Gatwick Airport.

A strong focus was also placed on energy saving, variant reduction, as well as lowering installation and commissioning costs. This was able to be achieved using our MOVIGEAR® mechatronic drive systems.

Energy efficiency through MOVIGEAR®

The extremely efficient MOVIGEAR® consists of a motor, gear unit and electronics in a very compact mechatronic unit. Its outstanding overload behavior means that it is ideally suited to the special requirements of luggage transportation technology in the airport industry and can reduce the variants in use while significantly reducing the installed power and saving energy. The benefits of the MOVIGEAR® primarily include the motor's extremely high efficiency IE4 (Super Premium Efficiency), which makes it an energy saving and reliable drive solution. Gatwick Airport appreciated these benefits and in July 2010 they selected SEW-EURODRIVE as the innovative drive technology manufacturer to take over the conversion of the North and South Terminal.

Over 1,500 drives currently ensure a smooth and reliable system operation. However, Gatwick Airport has already planned to increase the number of MOVIGEAR® to more than 2,000 drive units. This is all thanks to the following properties and benefits of MOVIGEAR®:

  • Energy savings
  • Variant reduction to 7 installed drive configurations
  • Reduction in the installed power
  • Reduced installation and startup costs
  • Control via AS-Interface v3.0 with a maintenance switch for each drive
  • Faster and easier access to all parameters
  • Plug-in design ensures a quick exchange
  • Two sensor signals for light barriers and belt wear sensors are transmitted to the controller via the drive's AS-I node
30 - 50% energy saving with MOVIGEAR®

Customer request

Gatwick Airport wanted to install reliable and powerful drives to upgrade the luggage transportation system. This meant that the key criteria were absolute reliability, energy efficiency and a reduction in the number of variants.

Our solution

Thanks to our highly efficient mechatronic drive technology with MOVIGEAR®, Gatwick Airport was easily able to surpass its objectives: MOVIGEAR® was a perfect match with energy savings of 30 - 50% and is already in use in other airports around the world.

Quote: Alex Adams, Head Engineer – Luggage Systems, Gatwick Airport

The installation of powerful drives and energy efficiency is particularly important

For our new luggage transportation systems at Gatwick Airport it was important to install reliable and powerful drives. As a result, our key criteria were absolute reliability...

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