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SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF LEISURE FACILITIES
Sustainability has played an important role in the leisure industry for several years now:
Rainwater treatment, reductionof plastic waste, or the switch torenewable energies are exemplary approaches that many operators are establishing or havealready established with their
attractions. But sustainability already starts in the constructionof technical components for apark or a ride. Four examples
show how optimisations in theconstruction of leisure facilitiescan lead to more sustainability:

Text:

Siegfried Wallauer

Photos:Wittenstein SE1) Higher Effectiveness and Energy
Efficiency
A higher effectiveness and the connected savingof energy are the most obvious forms of long-termsustainability improvement. It is important to en-sure a good effectiveness of all technical components in the drive. The right choice of gearbox andmotor technology plays a decisive role here; pla-netary gearboxes and synchronous servo motors

in particular have efficiencies well above 90 %.
This requirement for efficiency in no way detracts

from the high demands for smooth running, positioning accuracy and feed force; the technologies
mentioned even reinforce these.

2) Modularity supports Sustainability
Positive effects for sustainability can be achieved

not only in terms of energy optimisation, but also
in the design of a drive system. For example, it isadvantageous to design the entire system as
modularly as possible. During maintenance andmodernisation, individual components can be re-moved more easily and replaced if necessary. Inaddition, a modular design offers the advantagethat various components can be replaced after acertain time and exchanged for newer models. In

this way, a machine such as a ride or animatronic
can always be operated with newly developed
low-wear and energy-efficient technology.

3) Minimising of Technical Components
Especially in the construction of amusement rides,

minimisation or downsizing of components is an
important means of building more sustainably on

the one hand, and increasing economic efficiency
on the other. In many cases, it is possible to re-place a motor-gearbox unit that has already been
selected in terms of design with a more energy-efficient component in a smaller size without compromising performance. This helps to save assem-

bly space and, in moving machine structures suchas Powered Coasters, Flying Theatres or carou-sels, to reduce the accompanying weight and thus
the kinetic energy to be expended. Energy savingsof up to 20 % can be achieved when using highly
compact servo actuators. Then, every ride be-comes a little bit more sustainable – in years of continuous operation, these savings become quite
noticeable for the operator in monetary terms.

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MANAGEMENT

Siegfried Wallauer
he author of this guest

Tarticle is a Business De-velopment Manager, responsible for the Attractions Industry Division, at Wittenstein
SE. The company is represented in more than 45 countries and has around 2,800
employees worldwide, generating sales of €461 million inthe 2021/22 financial year.
TheWittenstein(www.wittenstein.de)Groupdeve-lops, produces and sells highprecision servo drives andlinear systems, servo systems
and motors as well as cyber-4) Smart Transmissions in the Industrial
Internet of Things

Conclusion: Sustainability runs throughthe Entire Technical Components

In the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), mecha-

Sustainability in the leisure industry concerns

tronic drive systems with sensors independently

record information and send it to a receiver. In thisway, data such as temperature, operating time,

vibration or acceleration can be retrieved. With
the help of this information, anomaly analyses will

be possible in the future. Machine learning me-

thods are used to evaluate the data set for deviations in individual processes or component behaviour. With these findings, wear can be de-tected at an early stage and failures of attractions
can be avoided by replacing damaged components. The operation of the facilities thus be-comes more sustainable economically and environmentally, because those components areordered and delivered that will have to be replaced in the foreseeable future.

tronic drive systems, among

more factors than an operational focus on environmental protection. Sustainability should al-

ready be the focus in the construction of theattraction. In this way, great effects can beachieve in the long term – incidentally not only forother things, for mechanicaland plant engineering, aerospace and oil and gas exploration. Nanotechnology andsoftware components comn

plete the portfolio.

the protection of nature, but also in terms of eco-nomic efficiency. Sustainable construction andoperation means not only dealing responsiblywith resources such as materials or energy, butalso keeping an eye on sustainable positiveeffects on operating efficiency. Both together
result in the future viability of the company, justlike the entire industry, which is already facing

major challenges due to factors such as a shortage of skilled workers, rising energy prices, orshortages in material procurement.

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