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Air Cargo
Published in Milica Kalić, Slavica Dožić, Danica Babić, Introduction to the Air Transport System, 2022
Milica Kalić, Slavica Dožić, Danica Babić
A Unit Load Device (ULD) is either an aircraft pallet and pallet net combination, or an aircraft container (IATA 2 020b). ULDs represent units into which or on which one could put shipments for consolidation. ULDs fit into the structural characteristics of the aircraft with their shape (cross-section of the fuselage), as Figure 7.1 shows, and the fastening system that is installed in the cargo compartments of the aircraft (either in the lower deck of passenger aircraft or in both the lower and the main deck of cargo aircraft). It should be noted that upon loading in the aircraft these units become an integral part of the aircraft, which is important because this prevents damage to aircraft structure by cargo movements. At the same time, ULDs secure the content therein against possible damage. ULDs are removable aircraft parts that are designed, tested, and produced according to strict civil aviation authorities’ requirements. ULDs also need to be repaired and maintained following the requirements. A ULD must be structurally capable to hold the loads and provide adequate protection to the aircraft systems and structure during flight to be airworthy (IATA 2 020b).
Air cargo processes
Published in Peter J. Bruce, Yi Gao, John M. C. King, Airline Operations, 2018
Aside from the aircraft itself, the major equipment required for the transportation of cargo is the Unit Load Device (ULD) and associated equipment such as tie-down straps. ULD can refer to both a flat pallet and a container. ULDs enable the airline to combine cargo into an easily moveable and transportable unit, and also to secure the unit inside the aircraft. By doing do, the airline can load and unload the aircraft more quickly and more efficiently, allowing for a faster turnaround time. Many different shapes and sizes of ULDs are available, allowing the ability to load different sizes, shapes and weights of cargo across various aircraft types. Speciality ULDs are also available, such as ULDs that can provide heating and cooling (useful for perishable or pharmaceutical shipments), or horse stalls for the carriage of horses. ULDs are more commonly used on wide-body aircraft. Most narrow-body aircraft are generally only bulk hold-able (loose cargo), although there are some exceptions such as the AKH container for Airbus A319, A320 and A321 aircraft. As ULDs are built to standards and require certification, as such they are an expensive asset for an airline to own, manage and repair. As a result, some airlines engage the services of ULD pooling companies which offer ULD provision, management and maintenance services.
Airport and ground operations
Published in Peter S. Morrell, Thomas Klein, Moving Boxes by Air, 2018
Peter S. Morrell, Thomas Klein
A ULD is a term than can apply to either a container or a pallet. The former is an aluminium box with door, often of a shape that makes best use of the contoured sides of an aircraft. The latter is a solid metal base on which shipments are stacked, with a tarpaulin and netting cover. Aircraft ULDs are units that interface directly with an aircraft loading and restraint system. They meet all normal restraint requirements without the use of supplementary equipment, provided they are loaded in accordance with the specific aircraft load and balance manual.
Closed-loop digital twin system for air cargo load planning operations
Published in International Journal of Computer Integrated Manufacturing, 2021
Eugene Y. C. Wong, Daniel Y. Mo, Stuart So
With digital twin system connects physical operations and virtual cyber systems to perform a real-time reflection of physical spaces in virtual systems, it assists air cargo loading operations to ensure synchronisation and accuracy in the cargo load planning and stowing processes. The system allows advance optimisation, prediction and continuous improvement when loading various types of ULD in terms of size, weight, destination, cargo nature, dangerous goods classification, etc. Further to optimisation modelling, the development of the IoT, cloud databases, VR and sensor detection realises the potential for applying digital twin systems to air cargo operations. This facilitates and reshapes planning and operations processes through five major components: systems integration in physical and cyber space; data storage and connectivity; real-time reflection, optimisation and validation; prediction; and anomaly detection.
MIP-based constructive heuristics for the three-dimensional Bin Packing Problem with transportation constraints
Published in International Journal of Production Research, 2018
Célia Paquay, Sabine Limbourg, Michaël Schyns, José Fernando Oliveira
In addition to geometry constraints which require that boxes lie entirely inside bins and without overlapping other boxes, this paper also considers additional constraints encountered in practical packing situations. These situations include the bin weight limit, orientation constraints, load stability, fragility of the boxes, and weight distribution within a bin. Moreover, as the original problem is an air cargo application, we extend the definition of the MBSBPP to include situations in which the bins may be truncated parallelepipeds. Indeed, in this context, bins are called Unit Load Devices (ULD). A ULD is an assembly of components consisting of a container, or pallet covered with a net, which provides standardised size units for individual pieces of baggage or cargo, and allows for rapid loading and unloading (Limbourg, Schyns, and Laporte 2012). ULDs may have specific shapes to fit inside aircraft, as shown in Figure 1. More details about these constraints can be found in Paquay, Schyns, and Limbourg (2016).