Safety and precision: smart gas spring for industrial barriers

With our extensive experience in developing gas springs with specific speed and damping requirements, we saw an opportunity to help the customer realise a safer, more user-friendly solution. Our team worked closely with the customer to develop an innovative gas spring solution that not only met the technical requirements, but also significantly improved the ease of use.

Customer problem statement

A customer, a market leader in industrial safety solutions, faced a challenge in developing access systems, such as barriers, for warehouses and production environments. These barriers, sometimes up to five metres long, are supported by gas springs to facilitate manual opening and closing. However, the existing gas springs did not provide the desired control, allowing the barriers to fall too quickly and pose a safety risk. Brimotech was asked to come up with a solution that regulates both the lifting force and the closing speed, fitting within the existing housing.

Approach from Brimotech

To find a solution, Brimotech first analysed the customer’s 3D drawings and performed detailed force calculations. We worked out three different concepts for gas spring configurations, taking into account the limited space in the existing system. Eventually, two concepts were selected for further development and testing.

The first concept focused on specific damping at the end of the compression stroke, which would gradually slow down the barrier in the final phase of closing, a kind of ‘softclose’ effect. During the testing phase, this concept proved to provide the desired lifting force, but the softclose was too short, causing the barrier to fall too quickly.

Results: Safe gas spring solution with extreme damping

The second concept went a step further and implemented firm damping over the entire compression stroke, while maintaining proper lifting forces. This allowed the barrier to close quietly and in a controlled manner, without any support creating extreme damping. This concept proved a great success and met all the customer’s requirements.

Conclusion

After successful testing, the customer decided to integrate this gas spring type into all their systems. Brimotech quickly delivered a small batch of these gas springs for a presentation to the world’s largest online shop in the United States. Soon after, the system was officially approved and implemented in all of the customer’s barrier solutions. We specified a custom-made gas spring for each length and weight, ensuring that all products have the same safe and controlled operation. Thanks to the cooperation with Brimotech, the customer is now leading the market with an innovative and reliable solution.