Aerospace Special Project – 12 meter high towers
THE CHALLENGE
For a recent project for BAE Systems, Boldman were called upon to design, manufacture and install a pair of 12 meter high towers to vertically lift and support a large 30 m3, 2.5 tonne box structure containing measuring equipment.
A point of reference located on the equipment and within the closed box structure needed to be precisely positioned to an accuracy of less than one millimetre and 0.1 degrees over several meters of vertical travel, by progressively tilting the equipment to maintain its alignment to a target located away from the measuring equipment.
OUR SOLUTION
The main structure of the towers was an aluminium profile truss manufactured from the Boldman aluminium profile system. The structure was split into 4 main components which were two vertical towers and 2 brace beams to connect the towers together. Calculation for 20 knot wind had to be assessed.
Both 12 meter high towers were fitted with two linear slides and each slide was independently driven through a belt drive. Extensive testing was carried out to ensure that the slides were not experiencing any unforeseen loads. A control system was installed to allow the operator to make manual adjustments if required within the failsafe limits.
RESULTS
BAE Systems were so pleased with the design, manufacture and on site build of the 12 meter high towers, they are looking to replicate the build with aluminium towers 24 meters high.