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COSMOS helps make ski lift chairs that soar safely
Company
Intermountain
Design, Inc. |
Industry
Automotive / Transportation |
Location
U.S.A. |
Product Used
COSMOSM
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Type of Analysis
Linear Static |
More Details
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The "Quad" ski lift chair
is made of fiberglass chop material and fabric reinforced
by an interior fiberglass unidirectional rope support
structure, with high density foam seat inserts.
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The Challenge
Intermountain Designs, Inc. (IDI), designs and manufactures fiberglass
simulator domes, rail car interior and exterior panels, monorail light
transit vehicles, people movers and chairs for the ski and amusement
park industries.
IDI needed to make sure that fiber
reinforced plastic ski lift chairs prove to be strong, safe, functional,
and as economical to produce as possible.
The Solution
They used analysis to learn how much the chair displaced under a 4 g
dead and live (with passengers) load vertical force, to determine which
areas needed to be reinforced, and in which areas the skin thickness
could be decreased to reach an optimal design weight.
By locally reinforcing high stress areas identified through analysis,
IDI lowered both stress and displacement. Moreover, the analysis helped
the company improve the advanced version design itself, and deliver
a light-weight, compact and safe design.
Summary and Metrics:
- COSMOSM helped reduce both stress and displacement of the chair
design
- Decreased material in areas where it wasn't needed, thereby reducing
weight and production costs
- Analysis was completed in a matter of days
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"This
kind of analysis isn't possible with hand calculations alone.
COSMOSM allowed us to model the complete chair assembly as opposed
to just individual components. And its user-friendly graphical
interface and powerful CAD translator let us create, analyze
and view results in a matter of days."
Wayne Kennedy -
Engineer
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