Moving Structures

Wimbledon Centre Court
Wimbledon Centre Court

Wimbledon Centre Court Roof

In 2005 Fairfield Control Systems embarked on a 4 year project to automate the new Wimbledon Centre Court Roof. The roof consists of 10 trusses that run on two parallel tracks. Each truss is 77m long, weighs 100 tonnes and is equipped with two Schneider PLCs that each control up to 4 lock motors and 8 Moog servo drives. A master Schneider supervisory PLC controls the opening and closing sequences to ensure that the 8 minute operation is controlled to a 0.1mm resolution to achieve a total tolerance of 30mm from end to end. This process requires 4000 I/O points which are monitored and logged every second through the RSview 32 SCADA system.


Website Link Wimbledon Homepage.
PDF Document Download the full case study of Fairfield's involvement with this project.
The Falkirk Wheel

The Falkirk Wheel

The Falkirk Wheel was a full turnkey project for the electrical control systems for the hydraulic wheel drive, water management, security, CCTV and site lighting. The control system employs a Group Schneider Premium PLC and networked Momentum I/O subsystems. Five SCADA stations situated around the site are used to control the wheel from different locations. A sixth SCADA was installed as an multilingual educational aid in the visitors centre.


Page Link Opened by the Queen in May 2002, and a Saltire Award Winner.
Website Link The Falkirk Wheel Homepage.
PDF Document Download the full case study of Fairfield's involvement with this project.
The London Eye

London Eye

The control of the moving passenger boarding platform and boarding gates uses a PLC based control system and network of 58 servo positioning drives communicating on a Profibus network. The PLC adopts a master/slave philosophy using a Rockwell Automation ControlLogix system with a Flex I/O subsystem communicating on DeviceNet. The system interfaces with the capsule and wheel drive control system and to a HMI for operator control.


Website Link The London Eye Homepage.
PDF Document Download the full case study of Fairfield's involvement with this project.
The Anderton Boat Lift

The Anderton Boat Lift

The lift is controlled via a Rockwell Automation SLC PLC communicating over DeviceNet to Remote I/O, operator HMI’s and electronic overloads. The system controls two main 45 kW pumps providing up to 1300l/min of flow. Control and acceleration of this flow is achieved by a ‘S’ curve algorithm to raise and lower the caissons either in a balanced mode or isolated mode. The operators control the lift via mutlipul RSview SCADA stations and panelview operator interfaces.


Page Link View a simulation of the boat lift operation.
Website Link The Anderton Boat Lift Homepage.
PDF Document Download the full case study of Fairfield's involvement with this project.
RoRo Ferry Link Span

Ro-Ro Ferry Link Spans

The hydraulic linkspan is used to load & unload vehicles from the Isle of Wight Red Funnel Ferries. The control system employs the use of two Hydraulic Power Packs and one Standby Diesel Generator achieving 100% availability and minimum down time.

The link span Raise & Lower operations are controlled by a Telemecanique Premium PLC with four pressure transducers monitoring the hydraulic pressure of each cylinder. An inclinometer is used to monitor the side-to-side angle of the linkspan with the PLC controlling electrical operated solenoid valves to maintain a level.