ULD Interlocks

[gulf clubber]

My apologies if I`ve posted in the wrong forum, as it is not directly aircraft technical, but couldn`t spot a better place:)

I work for a company that provides asset and cargo tracking devices, we use the Inmarsat satellite network to send and receive data.

We get a lot of enquiries from the aviation freight market, but a major show stopper has always been the fact that we must be able to inhibit the device whilst in the aircraft hold. Our equipment can be inhibited through a simple closing contact or logic input, but to do this would require some sort of sensor or microswitch on the ULD (Unit load device = aircraft freight container) which could detect when the ULD is in the hold. Does anyone know if any ULD manufacturer has incorporated such a device for any purpose, or indeed if anything similar exists.

I`d be very grateful for any inputs on this topic.

Thanks and best regards to all.

Des

[744rules]

The only kind of sensors I know are the ir-cells that activate the PDU's when loading/unloading . The manufacturer of this in-plane loading system is Telair.

To my knowledge there are no sensors on any ULD, except temperature sensors on cooling ULD's such as RKN,...

Why not try the Freight Dogs forum ?

[Ex Cargo Clown]

I can't imagine it would be possible to put switches where the locks fasten over the top of the base.

I think the only way it would be possible is to have some kind of RF system at the entrance to the hold. I can't imagine you'd get airlines to agree to that though !! You'd be better off asking the cargo shed operators to have the system as the unit comes airside to landside .