The requirements
Bouygues Energies and Services required a cleanroom standard hoist with bespoke features, built into the ceiling of their Mars Rover simulation room. The hoist would be used to pick up the Mars Rover for general maintenance or in the event it falls over.
The challenge
The simulation room at the Airbus facility in Stevenage has been designed to mimic the terrain on Mars and maintaining this environment is paramount. One of the key features in the design process of this project was the focus on cleanroom standards, to ensure the bespoke elements had a high standard of compliance.
The solution
Working directly for Bouygues Energies and Services, Hoist UK designed and manufactured a bespoke cleanroom standard monorail hoist from its hygienic and cleanroom range, which had some bespoke designed unique features for this very unique application.
The hoist had a 1.6 tonne safe working load with 5.8 metres height of lift and all external surfaces of the hoist were polished stainless steel 316, with minimal horizontal surfaces to help maintain the cleanliness level of the room for the application. The unit was fitted with an infra-red remote control system for easy operation.
The hoists lifting medium was a dyneema belt made from a non-metallic, natural fibre. This does not require any additional lubrication and therefore is ideal for this type of application where cleanliness is a key feature of the required design.
Normally, an electric chain hoist or electric wire rope hoist would be used for this type of application, but these types of hoists all need lubrication on the chain or wire rope, which is not desirable or permitted in order to satisfy the cleanliness levels required for this environment.