Schmidt Airport Permanent Magnet Bar

The PMB 2400 was developed for clearing airport runways, taxiways and aprons. With an operational width of 2,400 mm and a field density of approx. 300 Gauss, it reliably collects metal objects at a ground clearance of approx. 100 mm.

Construction and Technology

The PMB comprises of four components: the magnet system with its upper cover, two parallelograms with lifting/ lowering cylinders, as well as, a mounting plate. The PMB 2400’s magnet system is powerful and very easy to operate. The strongest magnetic fields are directed downwards while the magnet fields to the side and upwards are considerably weaker. This ensures that magnet field restriction limits for the protection of people are strictly adhered to. The permanent magnet bar is smoothly guided over the road surface by two castor wheels. It was developed to be front-mounted on medium and large carrier vehicles. This makes it ideally suited to the airport sweeper AS 990, for example. The permanent magnet bar is mounted onto the mounting plate of the carrier vehicle by a quick-change device. This means that it can be mounted or de-mounted within a few minutes. Mounting on size 3 or size 5 vehicle mounting plates is no problem.

In Operation

The operating distance to the ground is approx. 100 mm. The magnet bar’s flux density reaches ca. 300 Gauss. With magnetic force, reliably collects typical stray metal objects such as nails, screws, bolts and split pins from airport runways, taxiways and aprons. The metal objects are attracted and remain hanging on the underside of the magnet’s stainless steel bar when the PMB drives over them. This prevents the objects from coming into direct contact with the magnet. The stainless steel bar is not magnetisable but the magnet’s field lines easily pass through it. The magnet bar can be hydraulically raised by the vehicle independent electrohydraulic system. The transport position is attained by the lifting/lowering cylinders. Ground clearance during transport depends on the individual carrier vehicles. In the transport position, the stainless steel bar can be swung downwards away from the magnet. In this way, the foreign objects on the underside of the stainless steel bar escape the magnet’s pull and fall off. Afterwards, they can be deposited at the airport’s waste management area. Maintenance of the PMB 2400 is limited to damage inspection and possibly the lubrication of the flexible parts.