Dalton Terror ride refit simulates zero gravity02 November 2010

Belgian theme park zero gravity drop tower, The Dalton Terror, has recently been refurbished to include high power Unidrive SP ac drives, from Control Techniques, and motors from sister firm Leroy Somer.

In operation, five rows of four seats, weighing a total of 1.5 tonnes and arranged in a ring around a 77 metre high tower, are hoisted by speed-controlled Leroy Somer geared motors to the top, where they are released to drop in free fall at up tof 110km/hr, generating complete weightlessness.

Magnetic current brakes that comprise permanent magnets fitted in the seats provide guaranteed braking, independent of the power supply, bringing the ride to a safe slow speed with hydraulic shock absorbers providing the final soft stop at the base.

As for the speed control, that is provided by five heavy-duty 75kW Unidrive SP frequency converters, operating in closed loop flux vector mode. Signals from encoders, fitted to each of the Leroy Somer LSMV asynchronous motors, provide feedback to the drives and, using SM Universal Encoder Plus option modules, are re-transmitted to the PLCs that control the process.

Brian Tinham

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