New Hong Kong airmail center set to handle 730,000 pieces daily
The integrated mail processing system at the new Hong Kong airport processes all types of mail.;Parcels and letters of all sizes are received at the center from arriving planes and the local Hong Kong post office. All are sorted and sent either to temporary container storage or loaded directly into airline containers.
By Staff -- Modern Materials Handling, 8/1/1998
With a strong focus on speed and versatility, the airmail center for the new Hong Kong International Airport opened early last month.Built on the island of Chek Lap Kok, the $33 million center handles all types of mail from postcards and letters to large parcels. And when it reaches its peak capacity sometime in the next millennium, the center will be receiving, sorting, and shipping 730,000 mail pieces daily.
Mail arrives at the center, which is only a short distance from the airport's passenger terminal (see pg. 55 for related story on the baggage handling system), either from arriving planes or from Hong Kong itself. Mail is then sorted for departing flights or local delivery.
The center relies on a highly integrated handling and information system (Siemens Production and Logistics Systems) to balance the required throughput levels and time constraints. Components include extensive conveyors, tilt-tray sortation, letter sortation lines, an automated storage and retrieval system (AS/RS), and a dedicated S/R machine that handles aircraft containers.
All parcels are sorted on a tilt-tray sortation system (Crisplant). Daily throughput is 47,000 pieces. After sortation, parcels are loaded into canvas bags and placed in mail carts for transportation or temporary storage.
Whenever possible, carts go immediately to large aircraft containers for loading. A single S/R machine (Mannesmann Dematic) stages filled containers in a three-level AS/RS. Lift trucks deliver filled containers to planes.
Those carts filled with parcels that require temporary storage until plane container loading time are placed in a three-aisle, 500 storage location AS/RS (Mannesmann Dematic). As flight time approaches, the AS/RS retrieves carts and they are moved over to the large containers for loading.
Depending on size, letters are handled by either of two types of sorting systems (Siemens Electrocom). One system is for small letters and postcards and the other for large letters.
The addresses on as many as 10 letters a second can be read by the optical character recognition system which determines how to sort each letter. Those that can't be read automatically are read manually by people using a high-speed, computer-based system.
Just as with parcels, letters are bagged and loaded in carts for either temporary storage or immediate loading in plane containers.
According to unofficial reports, the airmail center will be the model for Hong Kong's own mail center. That facility, which will be three times the size of the one at Chek Lap Kok, will, ironically, be built at the site of the now closed old airport.
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