EP0433557B1 - Looping the loop swing with parallel rows of seats - Google Patents

Abstract

The gondola (10) of a swingboat turning full circle and accommodating a plurality of passengers is suspended so that it oscillates between two parallel booms (5). The booms (5) are pivotally mounted about an axis (7) running horizontally between two vertical columns (2, 3) and can be motor-driven. The passenger gondola (10) is cardan-suspended on the ends of the booms (5). The booms (5) are synchronously driven and for this purpose are coupled together by a shaft (7). The cardan suspension of the passenger gondola (10) is achieved by means of pendulum arms (10a) on shafts (25) running transversely to the pendulum axis (11). The deflection of the shafts (25) in relation to the booms (5) is limited to a small angle. <IMAGE>

Description

The invention relates to a rollover swing with a passenger gondola, which is suspended in an oscillating manner between two parallel arms, which in turn are rotatably mounted about a horizontal axis and can be driven by a motor, which is held on a base frame by means of a vertical support, the passenger seats being a short distance apart Head areas of the pendulum axis are arranged in the passenger gondola so that the direction of view of the passengers is perpendicular to the pendulum axis.

From US-A-2 158 073 an amusement device is known with a vertical center post which can be rotated about its vertical axis and on which two double cantilevers are mounted laterally opposite one another, each of which - on both sides of its axis of rotation - carries a gondola at its diametrical ends , in each of which two passenger seats are arranged back to back. Each of the (a total of four) gondolas is suspended between the one end of the double boom about a swing axis which runs near the upper back ends of the passenger seats. The swing axis is designed as a shaft that can be driven by an electric motor. This can also be activated by the passengers sitting in the gondola, as can a brake with which the gondola can be locked in relation to the swing axle shaft.

This arrangement allows the individual passenger to give their gondola any angular position in relation to the boom, regardless of the position of the boom: When the motor and parking brake are operated at the same time, the gondola is forcibly rotated about the swing axis. If the motor remains switched off but the brake is applied, the angular position of the nacelle relative to the boom is locked, and when the jib rotates, the nacelle no longer swings into its normal position, but moves with the jib in a rigid relative position to it, possibly also in one Overhead position.

Neither the rotation of the gondola caused by the motor about the swing axis over a full circular path, nor the entrainment of the braked gondola by the boom beyond top dead center constitutes a rollover rocking process in this known amusement device. Such a prerequisite is a free rotation of the gondola around the swing axis . The driving impression perceived by the passenger is completely different in the event of a rollover (alternating upward deceleration and downward acceleration) than in the case of a motor-driven circular movement.

Furthermore, the described arrangement and individual control of the (plurality of) gondolas can only be realized with small gondolas for a maximum of two people, because otherwise the forces occurring in the worst case of coincidence would no longer be sufficiently manageable.

In contrast, the modern technology of relevant amusement facilities tends to provide large gondolas for a large number of passengers (e.g. EP-B-140 238 and 231 051). On the one hand, this increases the profitability of the ride, on the other hand, and above all, experience shows that several people who are subject to the same movement sensations stimulate each other.

DE-A-33 21 599 proposed a rollover swing with a large gondola with the aim of enabling rapid and labor-saving assembly and disassembly with an impressive driving experience. The latter was to be accomplished by means of telescopic supports pivoted to the base frame. The driving experience, on the other hand, corresponds to that of the conventional rollover swing with a gondola suspended freely on the jibs.

It has been shown that the driving operation envisaged with this known rollover swing (page 10, middle paragraph of DE-A-33 21 599) cannot be realized. In order to achieve rollovers of the passenger gondola, the passengers in the rows of seats arranged relatively far below the axis of rotation must be subjected to such high accelerations that the rollover operation is not responsible from a medical point of view.

In contrast, the invention aims to provide a multitude of passengers with an interesting driving experience at the same time, namely in a large gondola using the relatively simple means of the conventional rollover swing, without exposing them to excessive - albeit high - accelerations, regardless of the seating position of the individual passenger in the passenger gondola; unlike the ride on EP-B-140 238, where the gondola cannot roll over.

This object is achieved by the features of claim 1.

In this way, a rollover swing operation with a large gondola that accommodates many passengers is possible without the head / neck region of the passengers being exposed to excessive accelerations. Because when the passenger nacelle rolls over, the centrifugal force field of the nacelle rotation may add to that of the boom rotation; In the downturn phase, gravitational acceleration also occurs. The resulting overall acceleration can have a critical effect, especially in the cervical vertebrae area, if it is directed perpendicular to the spine (whip effect).

At the same time, the aforementioned arrangement of the passenger seats allows the reception of two rows of passengers who look in the same direction and therefore have the same driving impression when rocking and turning over the large gondola, which is the case with the back-to-back arrangement of the passenger seats according to the US-A- 2 158 073 is not the case.

Taking into account a suitable distance of the overall center of gravity of the (occupied) nacelle from the pendulum axis, the arrangement is so made that the horizontal component of the head distance from the pendulum axis is relatively small. In contrast, the vertical component of this distance hardly plays a role: If the passenger's head is approximately below the pendulum axis, the centrifugal force of the rollover is expressed in an uncritical compressive force on the spine. In the rows of seats arranged one behind the other in terraces, the horizontal distance of the rear row of seats in the direction of view can and should be greater than that of the front row, because the headrests of the rear row face the pendulum axis, i.e. the heads of the passengers sitting there are pressed against the supports when they roll over. while (for reasons of space) the seats in the front row must be arranged so far in front that the pendulum axis lies behind their headrests and passengers are forced to nod slightly (forwards) when they roll over.

Preferably, the pendulum bearings of the passenger gondola (on the pendulum arms) are assigned locking devices, in particular in the form of brakes, with which the passenger gondola can be fixed in a certain angular position relative to the arms; this is known per se from US-A-2 158 073. This allows the driving cycle described below.

Another development of the new rollover swing is that each pendulum arm (the passenger nacelle) is gimbal-mounted on a shaft attached to the boom with a transverse axis to the axis of rotation and - unlike in EP-B-231 051 - by small angles to the boom is deflectable. In this way, constraints in the supports, the brackets and / or the passenger gondola with their pendulum arms are prevented, which occur due to inaccuracies in the positioning of a travel business in particular and are virtually unavoidable. The deflection angle can be limited by a prestressed, annular rubber element which is arranged on a coaxial extension of the shaft and is encompassed by the pendulum arm. The rubber element also dampens load change movements, such as occur when the passenger nacelle rolls over.

The measure also serves to compensate for any constraints that occur that one of the brackets is divided transversely to its radial longitudinal extent and the two parts can be pivoted relative to one another to a limited extent about an axis transverse to the axis of rotation of the brackets.

Finally, an advantageous measure for the travel operation of a rollover swing equipped for this purpose is that a water tank is provided for loading the chassis, which consists of telescopically telescoping or coaxially vertically extendable ring elements, with a flexible ring on the inner, when extended, upper ring , The ring elements in the extended state is lined container which is folded in the pushed (emptied) state. In this way, the receiving device for the required amount of water can be accommodated on a relatively small footprint without exceeding the permissible total height of the water tank in the travel state when the tank is emptied.

The driving cycle mentioned above is, as described in claim 8, the result of a special method for operating a rollover swing of the present type. It is characterized in that, at the beginning of a driving cycle, the booms first move from their vertically downward position against the forward The direction of rotation is deflected by an acute angle and the pendulum arms of the passenger gondola, which continues to hang vertically, are locked in relation to the booms, so that the booms (with the passenger gondola tilted forward) are turned in the forward direction and the lock is released if - just before the boom zenith position is reached Center of gravity of the gondola has passed the vertical through the pendulum axis. The latter measure leads to a forward tilting of the passenger gondola previously moved into an overhead position. The gondola swings around its pendulum axis and is at the same time 'overhauled' by the rotating booms, so that the passenger gondola does not roll over and 'away from the stand'.

With the drive speed of the boom, it is in your hand to influence the temporal and spatial sequence of the rollover process, for example in such a way that there is no further rollover, only a second rollover, etc. Also, provided that the passenger gondola is locked against the Booms made with the help of a brake, these are used to directly influence the pendulum process.

• Fig. 1 das neue Fahrgeschäft in Frontalansicht;
• Fig. 2 in Seitenansicht;
• Fig. 3 in Draufsicht;
• Fig. 4 die Anordnung der Sitzreihen in vergrößertem Maßstab;
• Fig. 5 eine (teilweise geschnittene) Draufsicht auf ein Lager der Gondel-Pendelarme an den Auslegern;
• Fig. 6 einen Schnitt gemäß der Linie A-A in Fig. 5;
• Fig. 7 eine Seitenansicht eines der Beschwerung eines Reisegeschäfts dienenden Wassertanks im Betriebszustand;
• Fig. 8 eine Draufsicht auf den Wassertank in Fig. 1; und
• Fig. 9 in schematischer Darstellung den Ablauf eines Fahrzyklus' bzw. einer Umdrehung der Ausleger.

The drawings illustrate the invention and its developments using exemplary embodiments. It shows:

• Figure 1 shows the new ride in frontal view.
• Fig. 2 in side view;
• Fig. 3 in plan view;
• 4 shows the arrangement of the rows of seats on an enlarged scale;
• Figure 5 is a (partially sectioned) top view of a bearing of the gondola pendulum arms on the arms;
• 6 shows a section along line AA in FIG. 5;
• Fig. 7 is a side view of one of the weighting a travel shop water tank in the operating state;
• Fig. 8 is a plan view of the water tank in Fig. 1; and
• Fig. 9 shows a schematic representation of the course of a driving cycle or a rotation of the boom.

On a base frame (platform) 1, two vertical supports 2 and 3 are attached. At the upper ends of the supports 2, 3, the hubs 4 are supported by cantilevers 5, which can be driven by electric motors 6, reversible in the direction of rotation and adjustable in speed. The two drives are coupled to one another by a cardan shaft 7.

The arms 5 have on the other side of the hubs 4 counterparts 5a, to which counterweights 9 are attached. These are preferably dimensioned such that their total weight corresponds to the total weight of the passenger gondola 10 with half the crew.

The passenger gondola 10 is supported at the ends in the free ends of the arms 5 in a freely oscillating manner about the axis 11 extending parallel to the axis 7, by means of pendulum arms 10a, which are short in comparison with the arms 5. Each bearing 11a is assigned a brake, shown in FIG. 6, with which the pendulum movement of the passenger nacelle 10 can be influenced until it comes to a standstill, or a specific angular position of the pendulum arms 10a relative to the arms 5 can be locked. Two rows 12 of seats 13 for passengers are arranged in terraces at different heights in the passenger nacelle 10 in such a way that the rows 12 also extend parallel to the axis 7.

The arrangement of the seats 13 in relation to the pendulum axis 11 is shown in FIG. 4. The seats 13 of the rear row of seats 12 - in the direction of view of the passengers - have head restraints 14 which are at about the same height as the axis 11 and in when the gondola 10 is at rest a horizontal distance of around 1 m behind it. The headrests 14 of the front row of seats 12, which are arranged somewhat lower, are correspondingly lower and below the pendulum axis 11, but at the same time also in front of this at a horizontal distance which is smaller than that of the other row 13. The overall center of gravity (line of gravity) S _{Ges of} the gondola 10 lies under the pendulum axis 11 and thus between the rows of seats 13.

The boom 5 on the left in FIG. 1 is divided transversely, and the two parts can be pivoted somewhat relative to one another about the axis 15, so that a disparallelism of the two booms 5 does not lead to constraining forces on the nacelle 10; In addition, the design of the bearings 11a described below must be taken into account.

5 is attached to the boom 5 (FIG. 1) so that its housing 17 forms part of the boom 5. This also includes the housing 18 of a braking device, which can be seen in FIG. 6 and which will be described in more detail below. In the housing 17, a ball slewing ring 19 is held with its outer ring 20; its inner ring 21 is part of a hub 22 of the bearing 11 a.

End plates 24, which hold a shaft 25 on the hub 22, are fastened on a plate 23 which also belongs to the hub 22. A bushing 27 is gimbally mounted on the shaft 25 by means of a spherical ring segment 26, to which the pendulum arm 10a of the nacelle 10 is fastened. In this way, each pendulum arm 10a can deflect slightly relative to the bearing 11a. Any such movement is limited and damped by an axially preloaded rubber ring 28, which is seated on a coaxial extension 29 of the shaft 25 and is enclosed on the outside by a bush 30 on the pendulum arm 10a.

On the other side of the plate 23, a brake drum 31 is attached, which cooperates with the brake pads 32 of a brake, which surrounds the brake drum 31 concentrically and is designated as a whole by 33. The brake 33 is designed in such a way that it can withstand the torque which a passenger nacelle 10 which is angled with respect to the extension arm 5 exerts even in the fully occupied state when the operating cycle described above has elapsed. The actuation of the brake 33 - which due to its design explained above also represents a locking device - takes place with the aid of a concentric hose 34 which can exert a radially inward force on the outside of the radially movable brake shoes 32 with the aid of compressed air.

Fig. 7 shows outward of the support 3 a water tank designated as a whole by 35, which is omitted in Fig. 1, but to load the chassis (not shown in Fig. 7) of a travel shop indicated there with the help of the weight of water in the operating state able. The water tank 35 consists of four nested concentric or coaxial ring elements 36, 37, 38 and 39 with a vertical axis, which can be pushed together when the water tank 35 is empty after the connections 40 have been released. Inside the elements 39 is a container (not shown) made of a correspondingly resistant plastic film or the like, which is fastened to the upper edge of the upper ring 39 and can fold up in the lower part of the water tank 35 when it is emptied for travel operations and pushed together.

As can be seen in the bearing eye 41 in FIG. 7, the supports 2, 3 are articulated about the axes 7, 11 and horizontal axes so that they can be tilted against one another on the base frame 1 if the rollover swing is designed as a mobile travel business. The tilt axes are arranged at different heights above the base frame because they can then be stacked one above the other with the hubs 4 of the brackets 5 for transport and thus in a space-saving and transport-safe manner.

9 shows in phases a) - e) the course of a driving cycle with one rotation of the booms 5 and a rollover of the nacelle 10. The position a) is the starting or rest position in which the passengers enter and get out. The arms 5 are directed downwards, and in their radial continuation the nacelle 10 hangs underneath. When driving begins, the booms 5 are first deflected clockwise by the angle a. The gondola 10 still hangs vertically downward, so that its vertical main plane with the main plane of the boom 5 encloses the angle 180-a. When it reaches this angular position, the size of which was previously determined, the brakes 33 lock the aforementioned angular position between the arms 5 and the nacelle 10 (position b).

The arms 5 are now rotated counterclockwise and take the locked gondola 10 with them in the unchanged relative position, so that it moves into the overhead position illustrated by image c). The position c) also illustrates the moment in which shortly before reaching the top dead center (zenith position) the boom 5 the center of gravity of the gondola 10 has reached the other side due to its bent position relative to the boom 5 and therefore - in the representation of c ) has already become overweight to rotate counterclockwise. At this moment, the brakes 33 are released and the locking is ended.

This can - as Figure d) shows - tilt the nacelle 10 and turn it counterclockwise. Because the jibs 5 continue to rotate, they support the rollover of the nacelle 10, which takes place approximately in the horizontal position of the jibs 5, as shown in image e).

Claims (8)

1. A loop-the-loop mechanical swing which has a passenger gondola (10)
suspended to swing between two parallel booms (5) which in turn are supported to be able to turn and be motor-driven about an axle (7) which runs horizontally and is carried by means of a vertical support (2; 3) on a base (1), the passengers' seats (13) being arranged in the passenger gondola (10) with the region of their heads at a short distance from the axis of swing (11) and in such a way that the passengers are looking in a direction perpendicular to the axis of swing (11), the booms (5) being supported between two supports (2, 3) arranged on the base (1), whilst merely two rows (12) of a number of passengers' seats arranged side by side are provided and arranged terraced at different heights looking the same way in the passenger gondola (10), the horizontal distance of the headrests (14) of the back row from the axis of swing (11) lying in front of then being greater than the horizontal distance of the headrests (14) of the front row from the axis of swing lying behind them.

2. A loop-the-loop mechanical swing as in Claim 1, characterized
in that locking mechanisms (33) are associated with the pendulum bearings (11a) of the passenger gondola (10), by which the passenger gondola (10) may be located in a certain angular position (a) with respect to the booms (5).

3. A loop-the-loop mechanical swing as in Claim 2, characterized
in that each locking mechanism consists of a brake (33) which is arranged in the boom (5) concentrically about a brakedrum (31) fitted to the part of the bearing next the gondola.

4. A loop-the-loop mechanical swing as in one of the preceding Claims,
characterized in that on a shaft (25) fastened to the boom (5) each swing-arm (10a) of the passenger gondola (10) is carried with a Cardan notion by a shaft running transversely to the axis of swing (11).

5. A loop-the-loop mechanical swing as in Claim 4, characterized
in that the angle of deflection is limited by a prestressed annular rubber element (28) which is arranged on a coaxial extension (29) from the shaft (25) and is embraced by the swing-arm (10a, 30).

6. A loop-the-loop mechanical swing as in one of the preceding Claims,
characterized in that one of the booms (5) is subdivided transversely to its radial longitudinal extent and the two parts are able to swing to a limited extent with respect to one another about an axis (15) running transversely to the axis of rotation (7) of the boom (5).

7. A loop-the-loop mechanical swing for travelling service as in one of
the preceding Claims, characterized in that for loading the chassis a water tank (35) is provided which consists of circular sections (36 - 39) which may be slid into one another telescopically or run out coaxially vertically, whilst a flexible container which lines the circular sections in the run-out state and is folded up in the collapsed and emptied state is fastened to the inner circular section (39) which in the run-out state is at the top.

8. A method of operation of a loop-the-loop mechanical swing which has
a passenger gondola (10) suspended at the ends from relatively short swing-arms (10a) to swing between two parallel booms (5) which in turn are supported to be able to turn and be motor-driven about an axle (7) running between two vertical supports (2, 3) arranged on a base (1), characterized in that at the start of a running cycle the booms (5) from their position directed vertically downwards are first of all deflected through an acute angle (a) in the opposite direction to their forwards rotation and the swing-arms (10a) of the passenger gondola (10) which is still hanging vertically are locked with respect to the booms (5), that then the booms with the forwards tilted passenger gondola are turned in the forwards direction and the locking is released when - shortly before reaching the zenith position of the booms - the centre of gravity of the gondola has passed through the vertical through the axis of swing (11), whereupon the passenger gondola (10) executes one single free somersault.

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