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MACHINE BUILDING

SUREFIRE ADRENALIN KICK

DRIVES AND CONTROLS

HEAVY DUTY ENCODERS SET THE HEART RACING ON EUROPE’S BIGGEST ROLLER COASTER, THE HELIX

iseberg in Gothenburg is Sweden’s largest generously dimensioned wall thicknesses and a warp- Günther, head of the HeavyDuty business unit at Baumer.
amusement park. The Helix roller coaster is one of resistant design, the die-cast housings are extremely “Yet HeavyDuty offers an all-encompassing performance
the attractions that swirls up an adrenalin kick. robust and highly resistant to vibration and shock. promise: such encoders must, first and foremost, function
LWith a 1380m track, Helix is the longest looping Bearings at both encoder shaft ends and the metallic under extreme conditions at all times. Secondly, however,
roller coaster in Europe and the second longest in the incremental disk offer huge power reserves and their signal accuracy must not suffer under these adverse
world. It hurls its riders at up to 90km/h through six loops unparalleled durability through extreme resilience to axial conditions. For an encoder to be called HeavyDuty, it must
and exposes them to up to five times their own and radial forces. be absolutely durable, impermeable and precise.”
bodyweight. This is the first time anywhere in the world For outdoor use the excellent anticorrosive properties Reliable precision is ensured by the interference-
where half of the riders (Helix takes up to 28) sit facing of the CX category of HeavyDuty encoders to EN ISO immune scanning function with highly robust, optical
backwards, making the ride even more exciting. 12944, achieved through an optimal choice of material circuits (Opto-ASIC). This guarantees optimum
Before the start, the riders have to be brought to the and high-resistant coating, are also extremely important. electromagnetic compatibility with a burst strength for
start ramp at a height of 41m. Controlled asynchronous These properties allow the encoders to be used even on or high-voltage pulses of up to 4kV. In addition, the
drives with 315kW of power are used to move the in the ocean, in the Arctic, in the tropics or in the desert. Enhanced Monitoring System (EMS) continuously checks
carriages into the start position. The speed of this drive is numerous encoder functions, swiftly detects connection
recorded by the original Hübner Berlin POG 10 HeavyDuty Protecting the inner workings and encoder errors and transmits the encoder status to the
encoder from Baumer. No easy task, as the roller coaster The combination of labyrinth and shaft seals also protects inverter or to the control via an error output.
is freely exposed to the elements, including heat from the the inner workings of the HeavyDuty encoders from solid, The HeavyDuty encoders achieve the best possible
sun, moisture from rain or wind currents. Hence the moist and paste-like contamination. This sealing concept SinCos signal quality through the LowHarmonics
decision for HeavyDuty encoders from Baumer, making conforms to protection classes IP 66 and IP 67 within a technology for outstanding control quality, low drive heat-
sure the riders experience the thrill as a pleasure too. broad temperature range of up to 95°C. Current-insulated up and high energy efficiency. The incremental square
The POG 10 incremental HeavyDuty encoder and its bearings ultimately protect the ball bearings of the signal outputs also have short-circuit proof, powerful
sister model, the HOG 10 with hollow shaft, are among encoder from current flashovers, and this averts any transistor drivers for peak currents of up to 300mA. They
the most versatile product ranges of the Baumer impairment of the lubricant effect. ensure reliable signal quality even over long-distance
HeavyDuty encoders. They deliver reliable speed data in a The result is an almost indestructible full package that transmissions of up to 350m.
host of potential applications and operate under the effectively prevents potential malfunctions and failures, These features – resilience and precision – make an
toughest conditions. As a result, they help prevent failures even during tough continuous use in a roller coaster. This important contribution to ensuring that the Gothenburg
and maintain the availability of machines and systems. is all the more important as a replacement can get very roller coaster riders are brought to the start ramp safely
This saves downtime costs in a host of applications. With costly – not because the encoder itself is expensive, but and at the correct speed. A good thing too, since this
the roller coaster, it even makes a valuable contribution to because it is typically mounted in barely accessible ascent to 41m is thrilling enough without any failures. It
the safety of human life – a malfunction in the drive of a locations, as is the case on a roller coaster. can be assumed that the riders on the roller coaster in the
carriage would at best be annoying for the riders, and at HeavyDuty means highly resilient. This is not only Liseberg amusement park have no idea what's going on.
worst a life-threatening experience. about a tight, solid housing and protection against the This promise of resilience and precision, however, keeps
The HeavyDuty technology of the POG 10 guarantees elements. The intrinsic values have to be right as well. “Of the operators safe in the knowledge that their ride will
high reliability under challenging environmental conditions course, it’s always the strong ones, so to speak, that are never become a roller coaster of feelings for them.
through numerous specific features. Thanks to solid and used when the going gets tough,” explains Steffen MORE INFORMATION: www.baumer.com

INDUSTRIAL TECHNOLOGY • April 2020
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