At London’s Heathrow Airport, the busiest international hub in the world there are literally hundreds of retail outlets and restaurants across 5 terminals. All items from duty free, designer goods and restaurant food and drinks have to go through security screening before they are delivered into the terminals. This screening uses x-ray scanning machines to check for concealed weapons, explosives and contraband.
Prior to 2008 all goods entering the terminals came in on pallets or in steel rollcages and had to be manually placed on a conveyor to go through an x-ray machine. This labour intensive slow process was brought about by the fact that metal rollcages could not go through an x-ray scanning machine because the metal is impervious to the x-rays and causes a blurred shadowy picture.
In order to supply the massive new development of Heathrow Terminal 5, in addition to the existing 4 terminals, BAA and their logistics partner DHL realised that they would have to adopt a system of rapid goods screening and consolidated deliveries to all the outlets across the airport. In early 2007 after seeing the Rollet, they approached HRM to develop a plastic nestable rollcage that would work well with x-ray scanning machines.
The result of this development is the durable Roll-X-Cage, a unit perfectly suited to airport logistics and handling. The unit allows a rapid, safe and secure way of transporting all manner of goods into and out of airport terminals and removes the need for the double handling and damage associated with metal cages. BAA is very pleased with how the unit has improved the efficiency of their operations and have placed an order for 5,000 units, stating that the Roll-X-Cage sets a completely new industry standard to be adopted by major airports worldwide.
