THE DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM AND ITS SOLUTION
Zipline is composed from the trolley that is attached to the inclined safety line. Therefore, the user can travel down the zipline due to the force of gravity. The predecessor forms of today’s ziplines have been used for centuries. In remote areas many cableways were used for transportation of wood and hay over deep canyons. In the jungle cableways have been used by research expeditions for the transportation of things and materials as the transportation above treetops was much faster and more convenient than the transportation by foot through the dense jungle vegetation.
Nowadays ziplines are used in adrenaline parks for recreational and tourist purposes.
Because of the fierce competition on the market the clients want to build progressively longer and steeper ziplines to stand out with the adrenaline activities they offer.
When the incline of the zipline is greater than 2.8% two types of trolleys can be used – either the trolley with end brake or the self-braking trolley. This enables safe ride down the zipline and sufficiently reduces the speed at the end of the zipline. The market supply of self-braking trolleys that can be used for descents down steep ziplines is very small and limited.
Our innovation deals with the following problem:
During magnetic braking of the self-braking magnetic trolley that is used for descent down the zipline the eddy currents are induced in the non-ferromagnetic material of the trolley’s outer case.
These eddy currents in turn induce the magnetic field which opposes the change of the primary magnetic field of the trolley’s magnets and the heat is released as the by-product. This heat reduces the breaking capacity and the life-span of trolley’s components.
However, our self-cooling Neodymius magnetic trolley overcomes this major problem with the help of lamellae that are inserted into both wheels of the trolley.
These lamellae cool the magnets and the trolley’s outer case (where the initial eddy currents are induced) down. Because of this special cooling mechanism our trolleys are one of the smallest available on the market. They provide optimal braking efficiency of the magnets.
There is one more thing that is unique to our trolleys – the steel safety carabiner that is attached to the safety line and to the impact surface of the trolley (via magnets that are inbuilt into this impact surface).