MBHS (Multisorting Baggage Handling System)

The MBHS (Multisorting Baggage Handling System) is Leonardo Automation's flagship cross-belt sortation platform and the core of high-capacity airport baggage handling. Unlike conventional tilt-tray or push-divert sorters, the MBHS mounts small transverse conveyor belts — cross-belts — on individual carriers that travel in a closed loop. Each carrier can discharge its bag to either side with precision, enabling simultaneous multi-destination sorting in a single pass.

The system is deployed as the primary sorter in high-throughput outbound, transfer, and inbound baggage halls at major international hubs. Its ability to process all bag types — fragile hard-shells, high-friction surfaces, bags with protruding wheels, oversized irregular shapes, and sticky soft-shells — without a jam makes it suitable for the full mix of passenger baggage at an international gateway.

Procurement engineers choose the MBHS for three reasons. First, peak capacity: the platform sorts up to 8,400 bags per hour, covering the demands of a large hub across multiple parallel induction lines. Second, contactless drive: propulsion via linear motors, inductive power transmission, and industrial Wi-Fi controls eliminate the mechanical slip-rings and drive chains that are primary wear and maintenance sources in competing systems, reducing both planned maintenance intervals and unscheduled stoppages. Third, space efficiency: the sorter loop can slope at up to ±15 degrees, allowing the loop to traverse floors and exploit vertical space rather than forcing a single flat-plane installation — critical in constrained brownfield terminals.

For GCC airports and hub-expansion projects in the wider Middle East, the MBHS is particularly well matched: high passenger throughput, an extreme heat environment that stresses mechanical components, and a zero-tolerance operations culture around flight delays all favour a low-mechanical-contact, high-redundancy sorter with proven major-hub credentials.