Ski Lift Construction Towers
With increases in the number of super sized industrial plants, warehousing facilities and ski resorts, ski lift construction towers are essential for safety, efficiency and reliability.
The skills and expertise of design engineers who create this equipment are also highly knowledgeable in variations of grades of steel suited to each project design. When designs are completed, they pass to metal fabrication experts who begin the job of building ski lift towers that meet customer specifications.
Ski Lift Construction Towers
Design engineers are the first phase of the job of creating construction towers. The accent in design is always safety, strength of materials of construction and durability.
Depending on the location and placement of ski towers, engineering design specifications include height, width, length, steel girder integrity and specificity of tower use. In the case of lifts for skiing resorts, for example, there are several major parts to be designed. These may include:
- Chairs
- Multiple passenger trams
- Electric winch
- Cable
- Cable pulley
- Pipe track
- Mounting heads and brackets
- Frame
- Installation angle
- Lifting arms
Each of these parts comprise the total design as specified by the customer. A smaller ski trail may rely on lift construction towers that will transport skiers to the top of the trail via single or double occupancy ski chairs that are attached to sturdy cables that originate from a cable tower at a downhill starting point.
At the opposite end of this is the skiers’ exit point or tower where skiers leave their chairs and begin downhill skiing. In larger ski resorts, the lift construction tower may be large enough to support several ski trams that will carry four or more skiers to the top of the ski slopes.
Phase Two: Metal Fabrication
Once design engineers complete their part of the lift construction tower, the next phase is metal fabrication. Metal fabricators remain one of the most important parts of industrial projects.
Their expertise in using engineering designs to create various metal fabrications to customer specifications is a tribute to unusual demand for metal fabricators with diverse experience. Metal fabricators are highly knowledgeable in the relationship between materials of manufacture and designs used in fabricating lift towers for ski resorts.
How Business Owners Choose Ski Lift Construction Towers
In many industrial businesses, facility and plant managers rely on purchasing agents to acquire expert metal fabricators for their industrial projects. Purchasing agents perform thorough reviews of metal fabricator businesses and the types of projects they have successfully completed.
Often, purchasing agents may request preliminary examples of fabricated equipment related to the type of equipment used in an industrial facility. This might include industrial exhaust stacks, conveyors and various types of metal fabricated towers for warehousing, storage and construction projects for towers for lifts, such as those for ski resorts.
Business owners of ski resorts and park facilities rely on past experience, as well as types of projects that meet customer satisfaction when choosing a metal fabricator for their lift construction tower project.
Unusual Locations of Ski Lift Construction Towers
While there are many ski resorts around the world, one of the most unusual is located in Calgary, Alberta. This ski resort is located within the Canada Olympic Park in Calgary. Tourists can see this landmark the year round. It is the highest ski resort in Central Alberta at 4100 feet at its top elevation and 3710 feet at its base elevation.
It was originally built for the 1988 Olympic Games. Today, ski slopes, within view of the Canadian Rockies, has become a popular location for avid skiers. There are four chairlifts and four “magic carpets” for beginners and children.
In Sweden, skiers rely on a “T-bar lift” and in the U.S.. and Australia “J-Bar lifts” for single ski lift capacity are often used.
Japan has 605 ski resorts with a total of 1,118 ski lifts. These ski lift construction towers are built with the most modern engineered designs and the metal fabrication is a tribute to Japanese innovation. Ski lift construction towers at Mt. Naeba are intended to transport skiers in “dragondolas” that fit eight persons and move along a monocable circulating ropeway traveling a distance of 3.4 miles.
Steel is used reliably for many industrial construction projects such as steel girders for buildings and bridges. The complex nature of steel fabrication makes it an industry that is high in demand. Skiers are assured of safety while being transported to the slopes thanks to strong steel fabrication and vigilance of detail-oriented welders. When a project requires a steel fabrication industry leader, contact Swanton Welding for a free consultation.
