The Millennium Stadium wanted the option of reconfiguring the stadium space as a smaller, arena style venue, enabling the staging of a greater variety of shows. Kinesys were asked onboard to deal with this specific area of the project by lead contractors Blackout. The two companies have pooled skills and resources on several other large ventures.
The largest section of the project is a moving mother grid system that has been installed into one half of the Stadium's opening roof. It consists of 18 five tonne Liftket motors permanently fixed to hanging points in the roof. Kinesys installed all the wiring, designed a complete cable tray system and designed and built all the required control cabinets into the roof itself. All equipment is specified and built to survive the harsh environment with stainless steel fixings and waterproof enclosures.
Each hoist is suspended from a load pin which gives the real-time weight readings at each of the 18 points. These are all cabled back to the control cabinet, along with the encoder and motor cabling in the cable tray system.
The system is computer controlled at pitch level. This is mounted in a rugged, fully waterproof enclosure and includes an external illuminated keypad for running and stopping the hoists.
Data communications and Emergency Stop control are both handled via a wireless Ethernet connection to the control cabinet in the roof. The Emergency Stop system is designed to maintain maximum integrity even though it is being run through a wireless communications system.
Once the external roof is closed, the hoists are lowered. A Total Solutions T2 grid (supplied via Blackout) is then constructed in position on the deck and attached to the hoists. The hoists raise the grid out to position stopping at preset intervals to level it out if needed.
(Jim Evans)
