What can cause a Ride to stop?
10 October 2019
You may have seen or read about modern high tech rides stopped in mid flight. Often with the head line, Ride Broke Down and Passengers Stranded!
Why do we see this more, and what causes a Ride to stop?
Rides and Attractions have evolved to offer faster and higher thrills to entertain customers. This has been made possible with modern design, technology, passenger containment and plc computer control systems linked to an array of sensors to monitor the safe operation of the ride.
This of course this has increased the complexity of the rides.
If the computer control system loses a connection from any part of the ride, or signal from one of the many sensors that monitor the whole ride, it will stop the ride in Safe Mode.
A control system has to be 100% or will not allow the ride to work. A loose connection will cause an intermittent fault and can be troublesome and hard to find….
This is the most common reason a ride stops.
A good maintenance and service schedule help to keep these ride stoppages down.
During set up of our Extreme Ride this week, we spotted a damaged spring clip that locks the control wire connector together so assuring a good connection for the ride control system. It had been knocked when taking the ride down.
This could have lead to the ride stopping, so was replaced immediately.
Not a simple two minute job…
Important not to rush this type of job, taking photos, checking wire numbers to pin connection and noting it all down.
Wire Ferrels improve connections and hold wire numbers in place.
Once fitted, the ride was thoroughly tested and details put in the daily maintenance log.
Posted by William Danter on 10 October 2019