Intamen's Engineering
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Ed Markey is my anti-drug.
Rollercoasters have proven to cause brain damage in stupid politicians. DAR-HOOT
trips to CP:6 Dragster:2 MFer:6 Magnum: 13 Running with the bulls for a 15 minutes dragster wait, Must be June!
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"Scream early, because once you reach 420 feet no one will hear you."-Rob Decker
With WT's structural problems, let me add how difficult it must have been to model those spikes. I don't have much experience doing so, but when it comes to complex frames and dynamic forces, it can be pretty tricky. Some seemingly simple two dimensional analysis of frames aren't so. Add a twist in there, and bam, you've got fun times ahead.
Mantis man, you hit it right on the head as far as testing goes. This industry doesn't have as much leeway when it comes to testing.
I once heard Xcelerator puts out around 9,000 horsepower, which isn't that far off from Dragsters. Although, it's certainly a much bigger system. I haven't heard too much as to if it's the hydraulic system that's been causing all the downtime, or the ride computer.
\Frankly, I wouldn't be surprised if it's more because of the computer. The 'report' metioned elsewhere about the train partially launching, then stopping sounds computer to me. When you think about all the sensors that ride has, it's no wonder. The whole strip of 'em just to move the trains in pairs is really amazing. I can't help but wonder how long the code is for Dragster's PLC. I've heard your average ride has almost 200 pages worth, and that's with signifcantly fewer sensors.
X? I don't want to get to into it, but I was there on a Thursday and it was closed for 'weekly maintenance' then too. No sign at the front gates, heck, not even a sign by the ride apologizing for the incovenience. All three trains were in the bay, sitting fully assembled, not a worker in sight.
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VertiGo rides: 32
2002 Raptor Crew
"Hey, Cool. My voice is on the lift"
Xcelerator had a few problems with blown pumps and cracked piston heads in it's 1st few months of operation (a cracked piston head sent it down for a whole week during Halloween Haunt!). But the main problems with Xcelerator are allignment issues. Many times, the train rolls back to engage the pulley and the dog misses the slot, causing the train to roll back behind the pulley. That's the main reason why Xcel goes down now-a-days.
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Ed Markey is my anti-drug.
Rollercoasters have proven to cause brain damage in stupid politicians. DAR-HOOT
trips to CP:6 Dragster:2 MFer:6 Magnum: 13 Running with the bulls for a 15 minutes dragster wait, Must be June!
Either way I hope it's running by the end of them month when I'm up there.
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-Mike
The Fast and the Fearless
Chatting with someone who claims to work for the company that manufactured the sensors for TTD, she told me that the sensors were not initially installed properly.
I obviously do not know if this is true, but I was wondering 2 things:
1. Is it a company that has people in Cleveland that makes sensors for Intamin's coasters?
2. If the sensors (even a few of them) were installed improperly, what would happen?
Could sensors being improperly installed cause computer problems, affecting the ride's operation? Or is that a poor explanation for at least some of the downtime?
-Sam
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Avalanche Run - My first Roller Coaster.
Magnum XL-200 - The BEST Roller Coaster!
monster said:
By the way, is there a spell check on this? I am good with numbers, not spelling.
Get iespell. It's a free spell checker that checks text boxes on Internet Explorer. Go to: http://www.iespell.com/
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Florida may have Disney World and Key West,
but Ohio has Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay.
It's great to live in Ohio!
I'm nowhere near an expert on these sensors, but in my experience with them, to be installed improperly they'd have to:
-Have their wires on the wrong terminals. There's only three.
-Be too far away from the object to be 'sensed.' This seems more like a track issue, as they're held in place by a trough.
If they were installed wrong, I'd think there'd be computer issues. The computer doesn't know a section is clear, when it really is, due to a faulty sensor. Ride E-stops. That seems like the kind of thing they would have encountered during initial testing of the ride, meaning the problem is now fixed.
I could be wrong on most of this, as there's much more than just those green 5-way proximity sensors on the ride.
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VertiGo rides: 32
2002 Raptor Crew
"Hey, Cool. My voice is on the lift"
PEPPERL+FUCHS
3234 Reimer Rd
Norton OH 44203
US
Contact: Greg Stansky, District Manager
gstansky@us.pepperl-fuchs.com
Phone: 330-289-0938
Fax: 330-706-9673
http://www.am.pepperl-fuchs.com
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Florida may have Disney World and Key West,
but Ohio has Cedar Point and Put-In-Bay.
It's great to live in Ohio!
http://www.americacoasters.com/videos/xcel1.mov
It cycled a full 8 seconds faster from launch to brakes, Im too lazy to do the math but that means it was traveling around 30% faster than it normally does.
*** This post was edited by Josh B 6/9/2003 3:19:05 PM ***
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Scott W. Short
mailto:scott@midwestcoastercentral.com
http://www.midwestcoastercentral.com
monster said:
As a mechanical engineer, I have to question at what point does Intamin take responsibility for their poor design choices...... I work for an aerospace company (design and manufacture of jet engines). If we had this type of track record, we would have been out of business a long time ago. And yes, a jet engine exceeds TTD in complexity, power and safety (of our product stops, them plane falls).
OK, sorry I don't like to flame but a fighter jet maintainer, I'm gonna have to bust the Hell out of you here... Did it occur to you that your company DOES have this bad of a track record? Crunch the numbers and relize your overlooking the obvious... My squadron has 10 fighters... and on the average ov er the two years I have been working here we MAY have 5 (50%) of them "up" at any given time... beyond that 2 of them have been damaged beyond reapair... and one crashed into the North Arabian Sea, nearly taking the whole fricken' carrier with it... Ok let's apply these numbers to Cedar Point:
Cedar Point has 16 rollar coasters, and over the past 2 years guests where lucky if 8 of them worked on any given day... Also in this time, a total of 3 of them had to replaced because two of them where irreparably damaged, and one crashed nearly killing everyone in the park...
Ok, now do you see how fricken' absurd your arguement is? The simple point is that jet engines brake down a whole hell of lot more than rollar coasters do, so don't give me that crap... I'm the one who's pullling 12-16 hour days to fix 'em... The diffrence there are a lot of jet engines and only on Top Thrill Dragster... so everyone notices when Top Thrill Dragster brakes down...
Your right though... jet engines are a lot more complex than rollor coasters... So let's think just how much devolopment, testing... Operation... Failure... Modification.... Repair... Testing... Operation.... Failure... etc... goes into a new jet engine? Because your telling me that your company can churn out a flawless engine over one winter, and that we can put it in all our planes and it will never brake down... Well darn dude... That makes my job a heck of a lot easier, I'm gonn a go buy a CP Season Pass now, since I'm gonna have so much more time off...
Ok Ok... I've had my fun... and I'm not flaming you for being dissapointed about TTD's performance... that's understandable... Just think Mister Engineer, before you put your foot in your mouth...
Josh B said:
If anyone cares, here some of that footage I mentioned about Xcel breaking 100.http://www.americacoasters.com/videos/xcel1.mov
can i go over the top-hat that fast?!? ...thanx for the link
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The B E S T SEVENTEEN s-e-c-o-n-d-s of SHEER >>InSaNitY<< I've E V E R experienced!
There have been some "problems" shall we say with the Tomcat engines over the last 20 some odd years (I think the powerplant is a TF-101??). Jet engines are not amusement park rides and likewise. To use an analogy based on one and apply it to another may be a lapse in logic. Who knows though!! I wanna ride the TTD!!!
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Erie: The only great lake you can walk from end to end and only get oil on your shoes!
You have feet right??...Go stroll on over to MF and ride that, How hard is that.
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- Dennis
When I die, They'll read this And say a genius wrote it.
http://drinkduff.com/
*** This post was edited by Big D 6/9/2003 9:59:11 PM ***
Plus, I've seen more than a few people exit the ride in TOTAL SHOCK, looking like they just might never ride again. Not everybody can handle this intense of a ride. If it were longer, it just might be to much for the general public. ...Just my $.02.
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The B E S T SEVENTEEN s-e-c-o-n-d-s of SHEER >>InSaNitY<< I've E V E R experienced!
Closed topic.