RotaBolts Secure Joints On Theme Park Simulators

As capsule simulators in theme parks become more sophisticated and realistic in their range of movements, the need for safety remains as important as ever.

In equipment of this type, the integrity of bolted joints is a major consideration for manufacturers who must ensure that structures meet the highest standards on installation and can be easily checked and maintained at the start of every working day.

With this objective, Thomson Entertainment, one of Britain's largest manufactures of leisure simulators, has adopted Rotabolt tension monitored fasteners for securing critical joint on some of their most advanced simulator designs.

The conventional approach to tightening fasteners is the use of a torque wrench, but this has a number of limitations, the most important being that it only registers the condition of the mating surfaces, not the axial load on the fastener.  On tightening, this can lead to inaccuracies in design load tension of +30% and higher depending on lubrication, cleanliness and the condition of the thread.

RotaBolts have the advantage of a built in tension monitoring system.  This enables tension to be guaranteed to an accuracy of +5% and checked using a simple thumb and finger test.  When the rotor cap is 'locked' at the prescribed limit, the engineer knows that the correct tension is being maintained.  Conversely, if the cap revolves, there is an immediate indication of a loss of tension.

These benefits have led Thomson Entertainment to use RotaBolts in all the critical load path clamping joints on the motion system of their V30 capsule simulators which carry 30 passengers and have been supplied to leisure venue operators in Germany, India and Norway.

"Our customers like RotaBolts because it is much easier to carry out regular maintenance checks.  Staff at the leisure parks can check bolt tightness quickly without any specialized tools and operators know that the tension is being maintained to +5%", said Mike Hawkins, principal engineer at Thomson Training.

In practical terms, straightforward "checkability" is the most important feature of the RotaBolts, because it eliminates the need for torque wrenches which are more complicated to use and have to be accurately calibrated to give a precise reading.  Another factor is the ability to safeguard against fatigue failure, which can be a problem in equipment combining heavy loads and rapid movements.

Thomson Entertainment also uses RotaBolts for their 40 to 60 seat simulators, 26 of which have been supplied for Disney theme parks in Europe and the USA.  The RotaBolts are used to clamp hydraulic actuators to base mounting pads, which secure the units to the ground. They are also employed in fastening the actuator connectors to the cabins of the simulators.

"RotaBolts are more expensive that ordinary fasteners, but this is more than outweighed by the benefits in reduced maintenance time and reliability in applications where safety is vital", Mike Hawkins commented.

Entertainment simulators and flight simulators are two more unusual uses of RotaBolts, which are widely specified for high integrity fastenings in the oil industry, chemical processing and transportation . . . where there can be no compromise over joint integrity.

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