An all-season airfield sweeping and blowing machine, engineered by SUSU jointly with Moscow Automobile and Road Construction State Technical University (MADI) and OOO Zavod SpetsAgregat, is designed for cleaning airfield runways in winter and summer. The work on the import-substituting development of an airfield sweeping and blowing machine was conducted from 2020 to 2023, and at the moment the equipment has been tested on a prototype and is ready for mass production.
Engineers of the SUSU Mechanical Engineering Research Institute faced a task of the development of attachments for airfield sweeping and blowing machine, designed for round-the-clock high-speed maintenance of airfield runways at any time of the year. The machine is built on the basis of the URAL vehicle chassis and is equipped with several attachments: a snow blade, a brush, a blowing unit, and a magnetic pick-up.
To meet modern safety requirements, the work of airport ground services should be quick and of high quality to clean airfield runways of various pollution types. For this purpose, different airfield machines are used. An airfield sweeping and blowing machine, developed by SUSU specialists, is designed for the rapid preparation of an airfield runway by removing dust, sand, litter and leaves in summer, and snow and ice in winter. The snow plough and brush sweep away everything that lies on the airfield surface, and the blower blows away the rest. The magnetic pick-up is designed to collect metal elements from the runway.
“In order to know what kind of design of attached functional equipment should be made, we analysed the technical level achieved by international manufacturers of airfield equipment. Then we designed the attachments using modern CAD/CAM design methods, carried out mathematical modelling and conducted a set of necessary calculations of components and assemblies, took part in the manufacture of attachments, assembling and testing a prototype of the airfield machine,” says Sergey Taran, Director of the SUSU Computer Engineering Centre.
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The developed airfield machine is equipped with an automated system for monitoring the current state of functional equipment. Such a system makes it possible to improve the quality of airfield pavement maintenance operations, increase the reliability and service life of equipment, and reduce the cost of maintaining an airfield machine.
Director of the SUSU Mechanical Engineering Research Institute Ramil Zakirov is certain that the machine fully complies with the import substitution criteria.
“Vast majority of components and assemblies of the machine were manufactured by enterprises of the Chelyabinsk Region. This allows us to confidently state that in the near future our airfields will be equipped with Russian aircraft. The project is aimed at ensuring technological independence of the aviation industry of our country,” says Ramil Zakirov.
High demand for such machines can be observed at airfields of an all-season status: at airports in Moscow, Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk, etc. Now, production preparation has been completed at OOO Zavod SpetsAgregat and the company is actively participating in tenders for the supply of the specified airfield equipment.
The project was implemented in accordance with Government Decree No. 218. The purpose of state support is to develop cooperation among Russian higher educational institutions, scientific institutions and manufacturing enterprises. Funds for development were allocated by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation.