The neck-and-neck race between airports in the EU becomes more and more fierce. Guaranteed connection times for transfer passengers and a fast luggage check-in are only two items of the long list of decisive competitive criteria. The increasing number of passengers and the more and more restricted safety requirements cause additional and constantly increasing demands on logistics and infrastructure. In order to be up to international competition, Flughafengesellschaft Stuttgart relies, among others, on large-scale investments:

The new apron service and machinery hangar offers the most modern technology. “Time is money. The airplanes have to be loaded and unloaded as fast as possible,” says Dirk Friedrichs. He and his team are responsible for supervising all new building projects at the airport. Therefore, the planners have attached great importance to selecting a technology for the 5,937 qm² building which is of the highest quality. “The doors are an especially neuralgic point. Therefore, we have decided for Efaflex products. Due to the high demands on the building, they are perfectly suitable from a technological point of view as well as with regard to their price-performance ratio.

The greatest importance was attached to the speed of the door movement. “The six largest openings of the hangar were closed by means of doors with a width of 7,000 mm and a height of 5,750 mm each. The door hangings with a surface of more than 40 qm² completely open within less than three seconds. This corresponds to an average speed of approx. 2.0 m/sec. Since the doors have such a large surface, the planners also attached great importance to a high wind load capacity. The high-speed turbo doors guarantee a trouble-free operation up to wind speeds of 120 km/h. Passenger stands, mobile conveyor belts, vehicles for de-icing the wings of the airplanes as well as goods trailers for luggage are housed in the apron service and machinery hangar. The hangar is constantly frequented by incoming and outgoing traffic; there is never enough time. Each of the doors opens and closes 15 to 20 times per hour. This makes a total of between 150 and 200 openings and closings per day. “We cannot afford working with unreliable doors,” says Dirk Friedrichs. “Even the shortest failure would lead to disruptions and delays in aircraft handling and would therefore cost a lot of money.”