Book description
Scenic effects involving rotating turntables, tracking stage wagons, and the vertical movement of curtains and painted drops have become common in both Broadway and Regional theatre productions. The machines that drive these effects range from small pneumatic cylinders pushing loads of a few pounds an inch or two, to 40 horsepower winches running multi-ton scenery at speeds 6 feet per second or more. Usually this machinery is designed by theatre technicians specifically for a particular show's effect. Compared to general industry, this design process is short, often only a few days long, it is done by one person, design teams are rare, and it is done in the absence of reference material specifically addressing the issues involved. The main goal of this book is to remedy this last situation.Mechanical Design for the Stage will be a reference for you that will:
* provide the basic engineering formulas needed to predict the forces, torques, speeds, and power required by a given move
* give a technician a design process to follow which will direct their work from general concepts to specific detail as a design evolves, and
* show many examples of traditional stage machinery designs.
The book's emphasis will be on following standard engineering design and construction practices, and developing machines that are functional, efficient to build, easily maintained, and safe to use.
Table of contents
- Cover
- Halftitle
- Title
- Copyright
- Table of Contents
- Preface
-
Part I: The Physics of Stage Machinery
- 1 Basic Concepts & Definitions
- 2 The Equations of Constant Acceleration
- 3 The Force to Accelerate Mass: F acceleration
- 4 The Friction Force, F friction
- 5 The Lifting Force, F lifting
- 6 Maximum Power and Force
- 7 Basic Concepts of Rotational Motion
- 8 The Torque to Accelerate Mass, T accel
- 9 The Torque to Overcome Friction, T friction
- 10 The Lifting Torque, T lift
- 11 Maximum Power and Torque
- 12 Combining Multiple Motions
-
Part II: Stage Machinery Components
- 13 Safety
-
14 Actuators
- Electric, Hydraulic or Pneumatic
- Powering the Actuator
- Electric Motors
- Common Motor Types
- Sizes and Configurations
- The Speed/Torque Curve
- Enclosures
- Service Factor
- Choosing an Electric Motor
- Hydraulic Actuators
- Pneumatic Actuators
- Cylinders
- Stop Tube
- Cylinder Selection
- Counterbalance Valves
- Additional Information Sources
- 15 Speed Reduction
-
16 Shafting
- Shaft Basics
- Shaft Strength
- Shaft Diameter and Torsional Stiffness Rule of Thumb
- Other Shaft Stress Sources
- Combined Torque and Bending Shaft Analysis
- Resonant Speed
- Stress Concentrations
- Keys and Keyways
- Practical Shaft Design Considerations
- Jaw Couplings
- Roller Chain Couplings
- Universal Joints
- Types of Bushings
- Additional Information
-
17 Bearings and Wheels
- Bearings
- Rolling Element Bearings
- Plain Bearings
- Calculating Pressure and Velocity
- Mounted Bearings
- Linear Bearings
- Slewing Rings, or Turntable Bearings
- Cam Followers
- Track Capacity
- Bearing Selection Considerations
- Wheels and Casters
- Wheel and Caster Terminology
- Specialty Wheels
- Additional Information
- 18 Wire Rope and Sheaves
- 19 Cable Drums
- 20 Screw Mechanisms
- 21 Brakes
- 22 Control Components
- 23 Frames and Framing
- Part III: A Mechanical Design Process
- Part IV: A Compendium of Stage Machinery
- Bibliography
- Index
Product information
- Title: Mechanical Design for the Stage
- Author(s):
- Release date: September 2012
- Publisher(s): Routledge
- ISBN: 9781136036019
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