5 replies to this topic

[adam92]

Hi guys,

Firstly thanks for taking a look at my thread.
I am in need of a little help.

For my dissertation I am designing foundations for a theoretical chairlift.
I have however become stuck after not being able to find any information regarding the design of chairlifts.
My main issue at the moment is in designing the foundation.
I have gone with a concrete foundation with 4 rock anchors however in designing them I need to know the forces that would act on the foundation.

I have said that I would use a series of towers of 10m in height and 1m in diameter at base. Therefore I need to know:
Would this be a typical size?
If so what would be a typical weight of the tower,
What would be a typical weight of the chairs?
and finally
What would be the typical tension in the cable?

I've said the the foundation will be 1.5m x 1.5m and 0.5m depth. Is this realastic?

Any other information regarding the foundations will be grately appreciated.
Many thanks if you can help.

Adem

[liftmech]

You're about dead on for the average height. Typical diameter of a tower is 24"/.6m here in the States. Most footings are much larger than that, however-- probably more like 2m x 2m x 3m deep.

Many of the variables you would need for this, however, are just that. Different approaches to lift design yield differing tensions, tower heights, and so forth. Older carriers (chairs) were much lighter than today's. Smaller ropes obviously weigh much less than larger ones. You also need to take into account the weight of the sheave assemblies, since an 8-rocker is going to weigh much more than a 2.

£0.02 from a mechanic, not an engineer

[adam92]

I'm just looking for basics. I've guesstimated a chair to be 200kg, a tower at 800kg inc sheave and the cable at about 5kg per mAs for

As for tension I really have no idea. I found somewhere 37500lbs. Would this work for a 2km lift with a 350m elevation. Its a 4 person fixed grip lift.

This post has been edited by adam92: 03 April 2014 - 07:15 AM

[Lift Dinosaur]

adam92, on 03 April 2014 - 06:54 AM, said:

I'm just looking for basics. I've guesstimated a chair to be 200kg, a tower at 800kg inc sheave and the cable at about 5kg per mAs for

As for tension I really have no idea. I found somewhere 37500lbs. Would this work for a 2km lift with a 350m elevation. Its a 4 person fixed grip lift.

A 4 person quad chair (fixed grip) will be about 130-140kgs.
For a lift this size your cable would probably be more like 6-6.5kgs/meter. (42-44mm diameter)
A tower complete @ 24" x .3125 x 10M + sheaves + Yoke Assembly would be about 3000kg.
The size of your foundation 1.5m x 1.5m is correct but the projection (height) would also need to be 1.5m as you will have anchor bolts for the tower which would be @1m.
37,500 lbs. - 40,000 lbs. sounds about right for tension.

Hope this helps- Dino

This post has been edited by Lift Dinosaur: 03 April 2014 - 03:34 PM

[adam92]

Lift Dinosaur, on 03 April 2014 - 03:30 PM, said:

Hope this helps- Dino

Massively, thanks alot.

[Lift Dinosaur]

How's the progress? Need more information?
Dino