Speedy service keeps the punters riding
A
Siemens Flender product story
Edited by the Engineeringtalk editorial team
Oct 9, 2003
When the Valhalla ride at Blackpool Pleasure Beach malfunctioned during the height of the summer holiday period, the local engineering team needed a replacement coupling in a hurry.
Flender Power Transmission always seems to get the most interesting requests for service.
On the evening of Saturday 16th August, when summer was at its hottest, Service Engineer John Mustchin had just been enjoying seeing his local rugby league team Bradford Bulls beat Leeds Rhinos at Odsal and was buying a Chinese takeaway at around 9pm, when a call for help came on his mobile.
"It was the engineering company at Blackpool Pleasure Beach.
They had had a competitor's coupling fail on the famous Valhalla ride on Saturday lunchtime, resulting in lots of disappointed visitors that busy afternoon.
They'd found the Flender website and identified that our Zapex coupling was compatible with their existing unit, and would therefore be a suitable replacement, so they contacted us for urgent help".
Mustchin abandoned his meal at home, and met a Flender colleague, Projects Engineer Phil Taylor, at the Bradford factory, where they identified and prepared a suitable coupling.
Calling in an express courier service, they despatched the coupling by 10.45pm that evening, and it was delivered to Blackpool Pleasure Beach at 12.30am on Sunday morning.
The Zapex ZIN 4.5 unit was destined for one of two pull-up lifts on Valhalla, which is one of the Pleasure Beach's most popular rides, with its series of exciting temperature extremes from very cold to very hot, representing the mythical and thrilling journey to the after-life made by heroic Viking warriors.
Blackpool Pleasure Beach Mechanical Supervisor Steve Cox detailed what had to be done to the unit before it could be fitted to the lift: "We assembled it after boring it out to 160mm on one side, and to 140mm on the other, which we did on the Sunday.
This particular lift's positioned at quite a height, and as each half of the coupling weighs around 55kg, some delicate manoeuvring was required to carry out the work.
But it was successful and is now doing a great job".
Thanks to the efforts of all concerned, Valhalla was successfully up and running again on the Monday morning, and once again thrilling the crowds at this peak holiday time.
As for Flender's John Mustchin, well, he finally ate his Chinese takeaway at 11.30pm on Saturday evening before checking the coupling had arrived safely at its destination.
Zapex is a universal gear coupling, oil and grease lubricated, for rolling mills, paper machines, cement mills, agitators, pumps, dredgers, conveyors, steelworks, compressors, turbines and other heavy construction machinery.
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