Where the perfect travel experience begins

When starting a journey, this has often been planned well in advance. It doesn't matter whether it's for a business meeting or a family vacation. The transfer to the airport is organized and coordinated with the departure schedule. Check-in is also done in advance using the online function, making it even more convenient to get to the terminal.

What nobody can avoid on the way to the airplane, however, are the long queues at the various airport security checkpoints. Each boarding pass must be checked and validated individually before getting access to the airside. This is where the passengers, who have widely been distributed throughout the airport before, come together and have to be maneuvered through the few security gates. This is the moment when the travel euphoria ends.

But this is not how things must work. State-of-the-art security gates can significantly speed up access controls and are therefore a decisive component for an improved travel experience.

Gunnebo Entrance Control is a leading provider of innovative control solutions and develops access gates for all security-relevant touchpoints at the airport. In addition to security gates to speed up passage through security control, the portfolio includes boarding gates for seamless boarding pass control and immigration or anti-return gates, which prevent passengers from returning to secure or sensitive areas after leaving. The objective is always the same: to maximize passenger throughput while maintaining the highest security standards. Gunnebo relies on advanced technology.

"Airport automation is the most innovative business area for access control at Gunnebo Entrance Control" says Alberto Fiorazzo, product manager at Gunnebo. About ten years ago, the company started focusing on automated access control for airports with the aim of offering passengers a self-controlled travel experience without compromising their security. In contrast to its solutions for ticket control in public transportation, the focus in airport automation is 100% on process security.

"Due to the strict security requirements in air traffic, process security is essential for smooth airport operations. Access control systems must be designed to support those strict processes in the best possible way," says Fiorazzo. The reliability of the drive solutions installed at the gates is therefore just as important as the reliability of the application itself. Passengers with a valid ticket must be granted free passage. In case of discrepancies, access is blocked. Failures, on the other hand, must be avoided as this would result in manual control.

For the development of its latest Airport Flap Gate (AFL), Gunnebo decided to rely on the experience of Dunkermotoren, an AMETEK brand. The AFL is an access system with biometric integration that compares the traveler's ID document with their boarding pass. When Gunnebo's control board receives a successful validation, it sends a command to Dunkermotoren's external motor controller. This in turn activates the motor, which causes the 90° door movement. The actual movement itself is simple. The real challenge is to execute the movement quickly and, above all, safely. The installed motor must allow precise control and must not exceed specified forces when executing the closing movement. These requirements could be met with Gunnebo's AFL gates thanks to the so-called MotionCode from the Dunkermotoren brand nexofox. The software environment makes it possible to individually program parameters such as force, movement- and acceleration profiles.

"We have strict requirements for the development of the new gate solution and expect an exact implementation according to our specifications," explains Fiorazzo. "Dunkermotoren implemented these via MotionCode so that we could test and identify further optimization possibilities. Three weeks later, we had a ready-to-use solution for our gates. The time to develop a new solution was critical throughout the whole development phase," remembers Gunnebo's product manager.  "Due to the discontinuation of our previous suppliers´ drive solution, we had just three months to design and validate a new motor solution. After that period, we had to ensure that the gates work in the same way and in the same operating environment, so that our customers would not have to switch to a new system."

Although switching to an alternative supplier was not a voluntary decision of Gunnebo, working with Dunkermotoren has led to several improvements in the product architecture. "Before the changeover, many functions were placed on an additional controller, which have now been implemented on the Dunkermotoren motor controller. This made it possible to rationalize the product architecture and minimize mechanical malfunctions," says Fiorazzo, summarizing the project.

And who benefits from those state-of-the-art automated access gates? 

For Fiorazzo, the use of Gunnebo Security Gates is a classic win-win situation: "First and foremost, automated access control systems help passengers to get quickly to the area where their departure gate is located. This avoids queues and results in more time to spend in the terminals´ shopping centers. This in turn benefits the retailers in the stores located there. The airport operator can increase throughput and reduce personnel costs thanks to reliable and efficient passenger processing."

Gunnebo will continue to develop its products in the future to make check-in and boarding even more efficient and further improve the travel experience. To this end, Gunnebo is already testing solutions with integrated biometric scans, for example, which eliminate the need to hold a passport at the security checkpoint and make passing through even more convenient. Dunkermotoren is proud to be part of this innovative business environment with its drive solutions.

Hidden Hero - the motor solution as door opener

 
Gunnebo Entrance Control has been relying on reliable motor solutions from Dunkermotoren for the development of various airport access gates for over 10 years. At that time, Gunnebo was looking for a motor supplier with innovative and reliable drive solutions and a global supply chain reflecting Gunnebo's production structure. 

For the latest airport flap gate, Dunkermotoren's “BG 62” brushless DC motor was configured as an appropriate solution. For space reasons, the drive solution is mounted horizontally on the floor of the gate. Combined with a suitable Dunkermotoren angular gearbox from the modular system, the entire drive perfectly fits into the available space. An external motor controller based on the Dunkermotoren Motor Control Platform is responsible for the intelligence and communication with the higher-level Gunnebo controller, which works via CANopen. Thanks to the sinusoidal commutation of the motor via Vector Control, it was also possible to develop a particularly quiet solution that does not generate any perceptible noise during operation in airports.

Finally, the choice of an external electronics provides further advantages: Functionalities that once has been developed can be easily adapted for the use in other gate solutions with other motors. In addition, the Dunkermotoren electronics is IIoT-ready and offers Gunnebo Entrance Control the option of integrating IIoT features at any time.

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