Minneapolis-St.Paul International Airport
Transportation and Rail | | by Todd English | 01 Mar 2017
CUSTOMER CHALLENGE
People mover tram systems at major metropolitan airports are designed to quickly transport passengers between concourses. The people mover trams play a critical role in large airport operations, and in some cases can operate up to 7 days a week, 365 days a year. The challenge for the customer was finding a U.S.-based single-source supplier for the actuators required to maintain tram operations in both a timely and cost effective manner.
SOLUTION
The existing actuators provided three different functions consisting of a cable lift, a station brake, and a movable sheave application. After carefully studying the actuators in use, Duff-Norton was able to match the dimensions, speed and force required for a drop-in fit. There are currently a total of 18 Duff-Norton SuperCylinders installed for this application: seven station brakes, three moveable sheaves, and eight cable lifts keeping the tram in constant operation.
Naval Surface Warfare Center
From the muzzle-loading cannons of the USS Constitution to the Advanced Gun System on the U.S. Navy-built Zumwalt-class destroyers, naval warfare has always relied on explosives to fire projectiles at the enemy. A proof-of-concept railgun, elevated by two Duff-Norton Mechanical Actuators, can accelerate a projectile up to Mach 6 and fire it more than 100 nautical miles.
Kern Steel Fabrication, Inc. is a well-known structural steel fabricator located in Bakersfield, CA. One of their specialties is aircraft maintenance systems. Kern Steel was recently asked to develop an aircraft maintenance system that would accommodate various aircraft models. This system required a combination of walk ways, stairs and working platforms along with the ability to adjust the height of each platform in order to reach standard maintenance areas from cockpit to tail.