Hot party nights: spring cable drums for a movable nightclub ceiling

Profile

• What was needed:  Slip ringless spring cable drum e-spool
• Requirements: The designers have to supply moving LED strips with fail-safe power over a distance of six metres.
• Industry: Stage technology
• Success for the customer: Reliability, aesthetics and no need for complex coils with rotating collectors.

Problem

The movable nightclub ceiling consists of a fragmented mirror measuring 16 x 15 metres, which is divided into 32 triangular elements, 16 of which are movable. Each of these triangles has two mirror surfaces, one at the top and one at the bottom, with the edge consisting of an SRU LED strip. In combination with spotlights, a breathtaking light show with monumental shapes in motion is created above the heads of the guests. The design challenge was to set the triangles in motion and supply the LED strips with power. 

Solution

The engineers rely on three motorised winches at each corner of the triangles. For the power supply, the experts rely on slip-ring-free spring cable drums from the igus e-spool series, which are fitted with hybrid cables and connected to the centres of gravity of the triangles. The stroke of the application is six metres. The speed is 0.5 metres per second. According to Mecaoctet, thanks to the igus solution, complex coils with rotating collectors, which would have been very expensive and unreliable, could be avoided. Compared to a slider system with cable loops, the solution is also more fail-safe and aesthetically pleasing.