The Belgian company Stageco has constructed three gigantic, identical stages for the current U2 360° Tour. The 30m high stage construction consists of a central “block” which rests upon four legs made up of six sections.
What makes this project special, is that high-pressure hydraulics are being used for the first time ever to assemble and dismantle the 230 ton construction – also known as “the claw”. Together with Enerpac, Stageco has developed a unique and highly effective system, based on Enerpac’s Synchronous Lift System, to put up the modular construction quickly and safely.
Four temporary lifting portals are used to assemble, and then later dismantle, the stages. Within each portal, a hydraulic pump unit, four high-pressure lift cylinders (350 bar), each with an applied pulling force of 20 tons (200 kN), and four 0.5 ton low-pressure (60 bar) locking cylinders are all attached to a supporting frame that moves along inside the portal.
The central block is lifted off the ground in 38 steps – the four hydraulic units raise themselves with the load, as it were. A section is added to each of the four legs after every 6 or 7 steps. The supporting frames are locked after each step before the following step is carried out. The pump units are controlled from a central operating computer on the ground, which also checks all parameters entered in advance. The system works according to the same principle but in the opposite direction when the whole construction is later lowered and dismantled.
This new technology gives set designers much more freedom in their designs, and also means that spectacular stages can be built at many more locations. In short, this is a technological step that is setting a new trend.
