Passenger boarding bridges

Flying would be much less comfortable without them: The passenger boarding bridge (also known as boarding bridge or gangway) enables the secure, same level boarding of the aircraft worldwide in thousands of airports.
In the early days of flying, the entry was much easier. The small propeller planes had integrated small steps, which were simply pulled down. Even today, small aircrafts generally use built-in stairs, because the slope in the gangway would otherwise be too much.
How would it look like without the boarding bridge? Modern commercial aircrafts have entry heights of up to 4 meters above the ground. Passengers of giant jets like the Airbus A380 must enter even on two levels. It would require very high stairways. And families with children, elderly and infirm passengers would find it much harder to get into the plane. Not to mention protection from wind and weather.
The principle of the boarding bridge is simple: Usually a part of the system is firmly anchored to the airport building. Another part is flexibly mounted to be able to dock with different types of aircrafts. So differences in the height of the aircraft door are applicable just as adapting to the different lengths and widths of the aircraft. For it, a gangway is usually made ​​of several pipes that can telescope into and apart from each other and one or more lifting units. This telescopic bridge is the most flexible passenger bridge option. Less flexible designs are often only suitable for certain types of aircraft, which restricts the flexibility of the airport operator.
The passenger bridge is moved with the aid of electric motors. These require power and data cables for the control. The movements of the individual elements are thereby not very fast. However, the cables must be protected from damage. Since they are mostly located outside the gangway, they have to withstand wind and weather.

Passenger bridge design  
The advantage of igus® for the passenger bridge

As the downtime of the aircraft should always be shortened and the boarding bridges reliably operated at all times, the mechanical movement must run smoothly. Because, a stoppage of a boarding bridge can lead to direct financial losses for the airport operator and airline, as well as for the passengers who want to fly safely, comfortably and on time.
The high reliability of the products are the reason for the use of igus® products in the passenger boarding bridges. The movements of the cables in the gangway can be safely guided with igus® e-chainsystems®. The strokes are mostly horizontal movements in the telescopic tunnels and vertical in the lifting units. The e-chains® have a long service life, so that high holding times can be expected. They can be installed in little space, so that no cables hang out and the appearance is not compromised. All the required energy can be supplied with e-chains®, for example, power and control cables, hydraulics, pneumatics, etc.



The e-chainsystems® reduce the required cable lengths by more than 50% (for medium supply) and prevent external mechanical loads on the cables such as uncontrolled rocking, swinging, jamming, etc.
The low maintenance reduces downtime. igus® e-chainsystems® work great in conjunction with igus® Chainflex® cables. These brave heat, sun, rain and snow just like the e-chains®.

Products for use in passenger boarding bridges

Energy supply chains

Protection of cables and hoses

Space-saving installation and reduced cable lengths (alternative to festooning)

Travels up to 800 m possible

Easy installation with quick opening and separation of the links

Low wear due to specially optimized igus® polymers

Sturdy, cable-friendly, rounded crossbars

Interior separation kit for higher service life

Wide variety of products possible for almost any application and special materials for particular application areas

Available from stock with many accessories

Cables

Over 950 types of cable from stock

No minimum order

No cutting costs

Special construction for the movement in e-chains®

A variety of jacket materials

Typical igus® products in passenger boarding bridges

Already implemented customer applications

More on applied products here  

Passenger boarding bridges

Use of an energy chain® series 4040C.30.250.0 in a gangway.

Overview of E-Chains®  

Passenger boarding bridges

Use of an energy chain® in a passenger boarding bridge.

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