Understage machinery
- main stage platforms
- orchestra elevator platforms and auditorium elevator platforms with a number of different drive variants (scissor-lift elevators, Serapid elevators, spindle elevators, rack-and-pinion elevators, or spiral lifts)
- actors’ traps and trap doors
- revolving stages and cylindrical revolving stages with traps
- stage wagon systems and backdrop storage systems
The understage area is situated below stage level and, on the main stage, incorporates the elements of the main stage elevators, transport elevators, actors’ traps and trap doors, as well as the stage-level elements of the complex stage wagons. State-of-the-art stage equipment is also linked to stage platforms, turntables and cylindrical revolving stages to allow transformations of any kind. The forestage area contains the orchestra platform elevators, which, in addition to serving as orchestra pit, also serve as transporting elevator for the auditorium tables and seats.
Orchestra platform design is usually subject to architectural requirements and lavish parapet designs as well as special shape requirements.
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actors’ trap "ALUStar"
Technical details
The drive variants available for the understage machinery have changed drastically in recent years. If hydraulic drives, due to their high energy density, were the medium of choice in former years, the enormous advances in frequency converter technology have made it the number-one choice of today, i.e. most applications are nowadays equipped with electro-mechanical drives.
Main stages, with their high moving speeds, are designed mostly as low-noise cable platform elevators, whereas orchestra and transport elevators are usually actuated via thrust chains or spiral lifts.
Linking of the drives via non-centralized control boxes and monitored absolute encoders in the computer control system with integrated safety functions have become a mere formality in this day and age. Various interlocked states of the complex elements of the facility have made operator handling very easy. Dangerous operating states are entirely prevented by the control system.
The actors’ traps with high payloads (400daN) recently developed by us support both solo operation and coupled tandem operation as a trap door while in perfect compliance with the SIL 3 requirement.
DEMO