At the Swiss Science Center Technorama Winterthur, visitors can learn in a fun way on a seesaw how levers can help to generate a lot of power with little effort. Also in the game: shock absorbers from ACE.
At 500 experimental stations, visitors to the Swiss Science Center Technorama can experience phenomena from nature and technology up close. For a seesaw that makes the lever forces directly tangible, suitable damping had to be found at the pivot point. The design team from Winterthur cooperated with Bibus AG and ACE Stoßdämpfer GmbH for the seesaw project. The Technorama had over 360,000 visitors in 2023 and is regularly used by school classes as the largest extracurricular learning location in Switzerland. It opened in 1982.
A team of over 100 people awakens curiosity and enthusiasm for science and technology with new exhibits and laboratory experiments. The museum enables visitors to experience hundreds of natural and technological phenomena directly. At the experiment stations, visitors can get hands-on experience of natural phenomena with all their senses and literally understand the world.
Seesaw makes leverage forces noticeable
“The longer lever”: Exhibit at the Swiss Science Center Technorama, Winterthur, Switzerland (Image: Swiss Science Center Technorama)
“It’s the mix that makes it so appealing. In addition to interactive exhibitions on natural phenomena, there are spectacular shows, demonstrations and an exciting range of workshops on topics in biology, chemistry and physics,” says Juliana Campos, Head of Communications and Marketing at Technorama. Visitors can experiment for themselves in seven laboratories with expert support.
In the outdoor area, there is a seesaw where you can literally sit with the upper hand. Thanks to the special design, one person can lift up to three other people – even if they are much heavier together.
The person on the longer lever sits on a seat that can be moved by up to 3 m. This allows you to experience first-hand the forces required to keep one, two or three people in balance or to lift them on the shorter lever. This playful lever experiment is a bit more lively. That’s why the team led by workshop manager Jürg Oppliger wanted to design the seesaw to be as safe and durable as possible.
Damping for a better rocking experience
In Winterthur, you can learn in a playful way that seesaws are two-sided levers with the pivot point in the middle (Image: Swiss Science Center Technorama)
During the test phase, the structure was first equipped with solid-state dampers at the pivot points in order to slow down the forces occurring on the two beams of different lengths. However, this damping proved to be insufficient, which was mainly evident in the rocking.
“We found that the supports had too high a torque in the end position and decided to make the rocking experience gentler and more sustainable for our construction by improving the damping,” explains Simon Michel, the responsible engineer. The design drawing called for hydraulic industrial shock absorbers. The fact that they were not used is thanks to the damping experts from Bibus AG in Fehraltorf in the Zurich Oberland who were called in.
The Swiss group of companies is a provider of hydraulic and pneumatic drive and control systems and also supplies complete systems. For special machines and special designs, the company also sells components from well-known suppliers, even in small quantities, as was required here for the rocker construction.
For decades, the company has relied on solutions from ACE Stoßdämpfer GmbH for industrial shock absorbers and similar components. Michael Weber, team leader of the damping technology department at Bibus, always works closely with ACE’s technical sales department.
“Attractive application”
Safety dampers ensure long-lasting protection and even more fun when rocking (Image: Swiss Science Center Technorama)
Christoph Berning from technical sales at ACE says: “We find this application appealing because the target group of children and young people can explore the laws of leverage in a playful way. Compared to our other daily work, this application was also unconventional in terms of the design of the damping elements.”
This is due to the special design: on one side there are three seats with a short lever arm and on the other one seat with a long lever arm, whereby the length of the longer lever arm can be varied by moving the seat plate. This made it difficult to calculate the exact damping in the pivot points. There were too many variables.
Together with the design team in Winterthur, they came to the following conclusion, as Berning reports: In order to protect the structure, a certain amount of damping and thus a large part of the energy dissipation should be achieved. At the same time, however, enough energy should be retained in the system for the rocking experience and the fun factor.
Safe fun on the long and short lever
Tubus safety dampers from ACE of the TC-S product family are available with diameters of 64 and 176 mm and offer energy absorption between 450 and 12,725 Nm
Simon Michel was able to replace the intended hydraulic safety shock absorbers with safety dampers from ACE’s Tubus range. The name comes from the tube-like structure of the components, which are made from co-polyester elastomer. In total, the company offers more than 150 different basic types of these structural and safety dampers in eight different families for almost every damping purpose.
The basic type TC83-73-S quickly provided the optimal damping solution in ACE’s large modular system. With an energy absorption of 1,940 Nm/stroke and a maximum stroke of 73 mm, the safety component in the Swiss Science Center Technorama reliably fulfills its tasks and convinced the design team.
“The visitors and our lever rocker are now well protected by the components,” says workshop manager Jürg Opplige. “We were able to maintain the rocking angle of 7 degrees that we designed with the tubes, whereby the force is released gently and with a rebound effect that becomes lighter.” This ensures fun, regardless of whether you are sitting on the longer or shorter lever. Another advantage: the tubes can – according to Opplige – “also be very easily integrated into the construction in terms of assembly.”
Author: Robert Timmerberg MA, specialist journalist (DFJV), Plus2 GmbH, Düsseldorf on behalf of ACE Stoßdämpfer GmbH, Langenfeld
Those: ACE shock absorbers
Bild: Cover image and images 01 to 03: Swiss Science Center Technorama; Product image 04: ACE
