Sunkid Installs New Moving Carpet At The World Cup Slope At The Rettenbachferner In Solden

The Moving Carpet has a very broad application range and finds a great many types of use within a skiing area. It can be deployed in the beginners’ area, connect the parking place to the valley station, carry people to the gastronomy, take them into the town centre, or deliver them to local public transport. The Moving Carpet has become established as the ideal means of transport wherever height differences, obstacles, or slopes need to be bridged. Connection routes in particular are, however, often not used by winter athletes exclusively, but also by pedestrians. That is where the Sunkid Moving Carpet finally plays its greatest trump over any other means of transport.

The new Gletscherband at the Rettenbachferner in Sölden has been designed and implemented as a connection lift as well. The receding glacier has rendered the old connection path between the two “Seiterjöchl” and “Rettenbachjoch/Schwarze Scheid 1 (worldcup slope)” ski slopes impassable. The slope was extended towards the valley as a result in order to bypass the affected area. However, this meant that skiers will not get right back to the “Gletscherexpress” and “Schwarze Schneide” railways. 17 m altitude difference need to be conquered.

The Ötztaler Gletscherbahnen reviewed a number of logistics solutions to bridge this height difference, finally picking a 174-m-long Moving Carpet as their connecting belt.

The new conveyor belt comes decorated with a great many technical innovations.

A drive power of 37 kW was chosen in order to meet the customer’s requirement of a practical (not theoretical) transport capacity of 1,800 persons per hour in spite of a considerable sag of the facility at the centre. A tensioning tower with a tensioning path of 2.8 m and a tensioning weight of 2 tons keeps the belt tension optimised while minimising maintenance effort. The tried and tested Blue Eye conveyor belt with a belt width of 900 mm offers passengers perfect grip even at an inclination of up to 18%. The conveyor belt was built with a strength of 500 N/mm with 4 towing layers and vulcanised on site. The facility is running at a maximum speed of 1.2 m/s and is smoothly adjustable. It features the tried and tested Sunkid safety switching flap at the belt intake. The Evolus gallery roofing ensures daily operation with low maintenance even on 2,680 m above sea level while protecting passengers from wind and weather. The entries and exits can be closed easily at the push of a button with electrical rolling gates. Emergency exits are located every 18 m and can be locked with high-quality sliding doors.

The facility was designed for maximal wind speeds of 165 km/h and secured with special folding ground anchors on both sides every other metre.

The facility is also equipped with the new electrical i-CONTROL® unit that was subject to intense testing on several facilities in the winter of Winter 2020/21 already. Starting this winter, Sunkid is using it serially in all alpine facilities.

Key features of the i-CONTROL®:

Multi-touch HMI with all relevant information for operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting
- With 4 different password-protected user groups with the respective defined function release
- With digital maintenance plan of the facility
Remote access to the electrical control unit via the internet for customer and manufacturer (for advanced customer support).
Periodic email reports on the most important operating data (such as utilisation, etc.) to various receivers (customer or manufacturer)

The facility can be operated from various locations, based on the customer’s preferences: either directly from the plant’s entry or exit area, or from the surveillance point of the ski area’s metal workshop approx. 150 m away. The camera surveillance and remote control facilities required for this have been installed.

The facility has been inspected by the competent authority of the Tyrolean state government in accordance with EN15700 and accepted successfully.

Markus Arnold, manager of operations of the Ötztaler Gletscherbahnen, says: “In light of the extreme weather situation, we have groomed the facility for the most interference-free operation possible as well as for quick start-up after precipitation. 60,000 guests used the comfortable climbing aid in October, with daily peaks reaching 6,400 trips. No T-bar lift can handle such numbers. The conveyor belt can be used on skis or a snowboard, as well as by pedestrians.

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