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New Anchor Helping Stop Planes From Overrunning

The following is a press release provided to GlobalFastenerNews.com. Contact the individual company for additional information.

Chicago’s Midway Airport has installed Runway Safe’s Engineered Materials Arresting System to stop overrunning planes with the help of 6,000 anchors per acre at the end of the runway. 

The design consists of gradually deepening glass foam placed at the end of a runway, which can stop planes going up 80 miles an hour. 

Runway Safe will install more EMAS at Midway and at Chicago O’Hare International Airport.  The BoltHold anchors meet compliance standards for airports worldwide.

Light-weight glass foam “gravel” has been used to slow down the planes, but can be light enough to become airborne from the planes’ exhaust.  This problem is exacerbated when planes take off from the same runway, with engines facing the gravel field, inches away from the EMAS.  

So designers developed a thin strong fabric to apply over a lattice work of steel brackets to keep the gravel in channels, lengthwise to the runway.  The brackets are attached to the runway asphalt using the BoltHold anchors, and the fabric is attached to the brackets forming a flat roof over the gravel.  

BoltHold asphalt anchors are manufactured by Asphalt Anchors Group of New Jersey.

The EMAS is designed to be reused after an emergency stop, with a minimum of rework.   

The long anchors  are mounted flush with the surface so that the steel brackets can be placed over them. The length of the anchors creates a bond attachment with the asphalt and the aggregate under it.  Bolting the brackets to the anchors means faster installation and replacement in the future.

Asphalt Anchors Group developed its first asphalt anchors in 2004 when its parent company, Designated Parking Corp., needed a method of mounting its car parking barriers to asphalt driveways and parking lots. Web: asphaltanchors.com