At the construction of a new baseball ground in Texas, USA, a new application has been found for polyurethane crane bumpers. The bumpers are being installed on sections of the retractable roof at Enron Field to make sure that the roof can close easily and smoothly.
Bart Riberich, vice president of engineering at Uni-Systems, the Minneapolis-based company that designed the roof travel mechanism for Enron Field, traces roof operating problems at other stadiums to the bogie suspension systems they ride on. “Bogies tend to concentrate the load at a single point when the wheels hit a high spot on the rail,” Riberich explains. Instead of bogies, Enron Field uses independent suspension for each of the 142 wheels that carry the three roof sections. Each section features a bumper stop assembly for the roof system.
The all glass stadium roof is protected from travel collision damage by specially designed Kastalon Crane Bumpers. Kastalon engineers worked with the system designers to develop bumpers that would protect against accidental over travel without damage. This included taking into consideration an all-systems failure, power-on collision with a maximum wind load push.
