53 replies to this topic

[Zage]

Here we can talk about all kinds of guides on lifts. A lot of lifts in Europe are filled with guides, especially those in Italy. On the other hand, a lot of lifts in North-America do not have them. Guides like bullwheel rigns on fixed grips, entry guides on fix and detacable lifts ect.....

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[highspeedquad]

So they just stabilize the carrier as the enter? I don't understand a lot about these guides. The last one seems that it would hardly guide a carrier in.

[Zage]

Yea, they help keep it stable on entry or exit

[snowboardguy]

So it makes it so the chair does not swing back and froth as it enters the station?

[SkiBachelor]

The reason why a lot of the high-speed lifts over in Europe have rail guides is because it's fairly common to have high winds during snow storms. However, high winds are also common here in North America too, but since most of the lifts here are below the tree line, they don't need to have rail guides to help them enter or leave the terminal.

I've noticed in the Doppelmayr World Books that sometimes lifts have glass walls to block the wind from hitting the carriers.

[highspeedquad]

Are the only type of rail guides found here in N.A. the kind that that stabilize the lateral roller?

[floridaskier]

Trams and gondolas often have floor guides inside the terminal. Detachables have entry and exit rails to get the grip in the right position inside the terminal

[highspeedquad]

I think that the entry/exit rails are the ones that stabilize the lateral roller.

[liftmech]

Two different names for the same thing. Doppelmayr's entry rail is more noticeable than those on a Poma, but both have them. They 'capture' the lateral roller in the event of a chair that is loaded off-centre, which happens all the time.

Fixed-grip lifts have guideage as well; usually it is most visible on towers where is keeps the chair bail from hitting the sheaves. Riblet and Thiokol hung a 'halo' below the sheave assembly while Yan put a section of square tube outside the sheaves as part of the assembly. Riblet also would put a full or partial guide rail around the bullwheel to keep chair swing down. They then went to a bullwheel-mounted ring under the liner about a foot and a half. Finally they went to the same type of reaction ring found on other manufacturers, where the chair head contacts an extended top bullwheel flange. Riblet's was the best design of those available, I think; it was adjustable and had a replaceable liner which kept the chair heads from betting beat up.

[highspeedquad]

So that's what those bars hanging from the towers are for, it didn't occur to me that those are the ones that stop the chairs from hitting towers.

One of the differences that make the Dopp entry rail different from those of Poma's is that Dopp has a plate on the outside. Instead of that plate, Poma has a bar that snaps off if a chair hits it. That is just outside of the main set of entry rails. It's right by where the chair would leave the station. I wonder what would happen if the lateral roller hit the plate?

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[crazyskier91]

Why would Pomas version snap off?

[highspeedquad]

There is a little bar attached to the outside of the guides, and I think that it is like a brittle bar: if it snaps off the lift stops, because obviously there is an alignment issue. That just lets people know that the lift needs to be fixed. If the Dopps have too much of an issue to the outside, there could be some bad things happening against the lateral roller and arm, as well as that exterior plate, because they would smash together.

[edmontonguy]

The lift cable would have to be off the tower infront of the terminal for a grip to smash into the entrance funnel. And to miss the funnel the chair would have to be rotated out of alignment some 30 degrees before it would have troubles entering the terminal.

[Duck]

Reminds me of what happened on the Vortex at Canada's Wonderland a few years ago. It's a suspended coaster, and when the cars come into the final brake run, right before they enter the station the bottom of the car has a roller on it which engages a "mouth", coming down to a tight guide rail to stabalize the cars during loading.

The lead car missed the mouth (it was still swinging) and got caught on the outside of the rail. That lateral displacement of ~30 cm or so was enough that the edge of the concrete platform ripped a pretty nice sized hole in car no. 1...

-Iain

[highspeedquad]

I guess that's why the entry holes are so large. It does seem unlikely, but there is always that chance that something will go astray in some way.

[liftmech]

highspeedquad, on Mar 10 2005, 06:46 PM, said:

There is a little bar attached to the outside of the guides, and I think that it is like a brittle bar: if it snaps off the lift stops, because obviously there is an alignment issue. That just lets people know that the lift needs to be fixed. If the Dopps have too much of an issue to the outside, there could be some bad things happening against the lateral roller and arm, as well as that exterior plate, because they would smash together.
<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nice try, but no cigar. :)
What you are describing is an adjustment bolt. Its sole purpose in life is to centre the entry 'trumpet' relative to the incoming grip. If a grip were to contact it it would be because of severe terminal or tower misalignment and yes it would be a bad thing. Doppelmayr's trumpet is a single unit mounted on a swivel and centred by springs, and the adjustment bolts are further inside the terminal. Rope position and grip attach/detach switches are inside the terminal and not visible unless you're in there.

[jessevanneo]

I know im going here, but what's with your signature, John? Mitaa Kuluu? Wth is that?

[Owen]

Moi Moi, Mita Kuuluu? Means "Hi, how are you?" in Finnish, so I'm guessing it's something like "What's up?".

[liftmech]

Do you speak Finn? I don't, but many of my relatives do, so I know a few phrases.

[Owen]

No. :P Behold the power of Google.