Fixed Grip Controls
Liftronics control systems are designed from the ground up to meet the specific needs of ski areas and their maintenance and operations teams. From lift operator interfaces that show everything you need to see at-a-glance, to maintenance screens with details about every aspect of the lift and control system’s status, Liftronics controls are easy to use and maintain.
Safety
The number one priority is always safety. Liftronics control systems implement SIL 3/Ple control functions on critical inputs and outputs, with redundancy and diagnostics in place to detect potential failures before they can become dangerous failures. Liftronics controls also use failsafe processors with internal diagnostics, error checking, and current generation network security standards to ensure that the tested, validated components can’t be changed in an unsafe way.
Bypasses
Liftronics also knows that sometimes the safest way to unload a ski lift is to run the lift, even with certain features bypassed. Liftronics controls allow maintenance personnel to granularly bypass specific functions for a limited amount of time, to unload a lift.
Bypassed functions uniquely still show maintenance personnel information about the status of that switch, even while bypassed. Bypasses can include password protection or specific keys to enable, and are time limited to prevent accidentally bypassing a critical function indefinitely.
Reliability
Liftronics controls are highly reliable and consistent, thanks to the quality components and experience working with the failures that are common in mountain environments. Lightning protection is built into every tower and comline circuit. Wiring schemes are designed to minimize the effects of field wiring failures and provide information about them when they do happen.
Safety and monitoring switches are wired individually to the controller, allow the control system to monitor and display each switch individually, rather than combining multiple stop circuits into a large daisy chain that requires troubleshooting with a meter to fully diagnose.
Isolated control power sources allow the Liftronics control system to operate independently of auxiliary diesel or other batteries, which reduces the chances of a battery failure causing both unexpected behavior and taking out the auxiliary at the same time. (Although we still monitor the battery voltage, just in case).
Transparency
Liftronics controls provide an unparalleled amount of information to lift operators, through both simple indicators and screens at each station. Simple information is shown through indicator lights on the push buttons to indicate the state of the lift. A start button on a lift that’s ready to start will be flashing green. A flashing fast button means the lift is ready to speed up, and once it reaches full speed the fast button stays solid. And once the lift is stopped, the button that stops it will be lit solid.
For times when operators need a little more information, a screen at every station on the lift will provide plain-text information about the current state. If your stop button is pressed, your screen will tell you “Your stop button is pressed”. If the stop gate at the top of the lift is tripped, your screen will tell you “The stop gate at the top ramp is tripped”. There’s no ambiguity as to what’s stopped the lift, and what might be preventing it from starting. And that information is available to the lift operator without them needing to leave their control stations to climb ladders to try and get more information.
If maintenance needs even more detail, not only is the most critical thing that stopped the lift shown, but all the conditions that might prevent a lift from starting can be shown at once. And the lift keeps track of history just in case you want to go back and see how often a problem has been happening while you fix it.
