3D detection reduces lift door damage at Copenhagen Airport by 90 per cent

Public Sector Wed, Mar 23, 2016 10:00 AM

Panachrome detectors cut incidents from 30 a month to less than one a week

Copenhagen Airport has reduced the frequency of lift door accidents by 90 per cent thanks to Panachrome 3D light curtains from Avire.

“There’s no doubt that the 3D detectors have done a great job,” said Nicolai Holm, service coordinator at the airport.

When 14 of the airport’s lifts were protected by standard 2D light curtains, employees driving trucks would regularly misjudge their approach. As they neared the lifts and realised that the doors were about to close, they could not stop the 1.5-tonne trucks quickly enough to prevent them colliding with the doors. A small number of careless passengers also caused door damage with their luggage trolleys.

During that period there were between one and five incidents of door damage recorded every day. Following installation of Avire’s 3D detectors, that number had dropped to three a month.

“The airport uses a dashboard to record information on the number of incidents affecting the lifts,” explained Kasper Olsen, division manager at ThyssenKrupp, who worked on the modernisation project. “After we’d installed the 3D light curtains and the number of incidents dropped so dramatically, senior management asked if we were still using certain lifts because they were no longer showing up on the dashboard!”

Kasper had previously been involved with another project in Copenhagen in which he had specified Panachrome light curtains.

Panachrome 3D detectors are suitable for a wide variety of doors, including both centre- and side-opening. Typical applications include airports, hospitals, hotels and public buildings.