Fire protection at Frankfurt Airport:
Fraport AG plays it safe by choosing Minimax
The major airport in Frankfurt is not just the largest airport in Germany. With 1,400 take-offs and landings each day, it is one of the most important hubs in international air transport and it is also Lufthansa’s home base. Conversion and extension works costing billions of euros are presently being carried out at the airport. They are expected to continue until 2025. The “Airport City”, with its total area of more than 19 square kilometres, is expected to be completed by that date. These new dimensions present a special challenge in terms of fire protection. Those areas which are open to passengers plus the operational and plant rooms in the huge complex, which are invisible to visitors, all have to be protected.
Fraport AG, the operator of Frankfurt Airport, has contracted Minimax to carry out a number of different projects. All the new gates constructed for the new Airbus A380 are to be given sprinkler protection and at the same time the pipeline systems in the existing adjoining gates are to be completely renewed and extended. Fire protection here will also extend to the voids in the suspended ceilings, so that cable fires can be prevented at an early stage. But Minimax's involvement is not restricted to work on the gates. There are also many projects “below ground”, such as the fire safety engineering improvements to the baggage handling system – the heart of the airport – and in other areas used for building plant and services which are not open to the public. The baggage handling systems, which altogether have a length of around 67 km, will be protected by Minimax Minifog sprinklers specially developed for this purpose. But fires are prevented not only through the use of water. Other equipment is to be installed to meet individual requirements: foam extinguishing systems, spray flooding systems, gas extinguishing systems, fire detection systems and manual fire extinguishers – in short, almost everything that Minimax has to offer: the complete fire protection portfolio.