Mechanical Design for the Stage

Overview

This course featured a final project to design a mechanical system to raise and lower a cantilevered ceiling spanning a stage, with movements from 30 to 60 degrees from horizontal occurring across 15 minutes. At some point near the end of the show, the ceiling would need to 'come crashing down' as if the sky were falling.

For this project, I developed a stage winch drive system to create the effect. For the 'crash' to occur, I designed a disconnect system, where the ceiling panel can be disconnected from the winch. In order to allow the ceiling to come falling down safely, I implemented an Eddy current braking system, similar to those seen on fail-safe roller coaster brake runs. This would slow the wall naturally while falling, giving it a smooth yet sudden deceleration to look as though it were caught.