Spline Quad

Spline Quad

Lift Engineering

History

1965-85

Lift Engineering was founded by Jan Kunczynski, a Polish immigrant and former ski racer who initially worked at Poma. He left Poma in 1965 and founded Lift Engineering to build his own ski lifts. One of his first customers was Squaw Valley. The name "Yan" is the English spelling of his first name, and the brand under which Mr. Kunczynski sold his lifts.

The company grew through the 1970s and 1980s. Mr. Kunczynski was known for dining with prospective clients (aprs-ski) instead of just simple negotiating, and would sketch plans out on paper napkins. Another attractive feature to buyers was the price. Mr. Kunczynski sold his lifts at prices well below those of larger manufacturers. Mr. Kunczynski is also credited with being the first manufacturer of ski lifts to incorporate aesthetics into the design of his equipment, creating sleek designs that were popular with ski resorts.

The company is most noted for its achievements in designing fixed-grip chairlifts[citation needed]. Mr. Kunczynski created a standard system that served the company well. The design was simple and easy to operate and maintain. For example, rather than put all the control panels in the operator's booth, and thus potentially confuse whoever is operating the lift, Yan operator booths contain only two switches: a switch that stops and starts the lift, and one that selects its speed. The main controls were placed in the standard shipping crate-reminiscent machine room. Lift Engineering was the first (and only) company to design and build a DC motor control tailored solely to the ski lift industry. From the company's beginnings, it always designed and built its own low voltage controls. Finally, besides being easy to operate, Yan lifts are also easy maintain the setup is allegedly foolproof. Yan's tower designs were also always overbuilt, meaning that it is possible to turn one of his triple chairs into a fixed quad merely by changing the chairs, something that was actually done at Killington, Vermont.

An example of a Yan fixed-grip chairlift;

the Catskinner triple chair at Blackcomb, B.C.

198595

Lift Engineering plunged headfirst into a new market in 1986, the high-speed detachable quad lift. Whereas the European ski lift firms spent upwards of two years developing these lifts, Yan installed its first in 1987, at Mammoth Mountain in California.

By the late 1980s, Lift Engineering was one of the largest suppliers of ski lifts based in North America. POL-X West developed a new version of the YAN-7 detachable grip, the one that was used on the majority of the high-speed lifts, replacing the marshmallow springs with high-tension springs. The redesign was ordered by a group of British Columbia and Alberta ski resorts that included Silver Star and Lake Louise. This grip also proved unsatisfactory.

Lift Engineering also moved into the funitel market in the early 1990s. The quad mono cable, or QMC funitel, was invented by Mr. Kunczynski (US Patent 4,848,241). The lift consisted of four separate loops of cable, strung between the upper and lower stations. Two cables were run in the uphill direction, and two were run in the downhill direction. The cabins would be mounted between the cables. But, because the cables were looped, once the cabins reached the upper station, the cables would loop back downhill not carrying a load. Only one of these lifts was ever built, at June Mountain, California. Apparently, the owners had difficulty getting the cables to run in synchronism. The lift also developed the grip problems that occurred on the Yan high-speed quads, and was removed in 1997.

Lift Engineering technology in Europe

Some lift builders in France are still using Yan parts, especially the fixed grip. So Skirail (Annecy, France) and Montaval (Val d'Isre, France) still use Yan grips for quad fixed chairlifts. Upper and bottom station design looks like Yan lifts.

Controversies and accidents

Despite questions about safety, Yan managed to sell a total of 31 high-speed quads in the United States and Canada. Many of the lifts have been retrofitted by companies such as Poma and Doppelmayr.

Keystone, Colorado accident (1985)

Potential problems with Yan lifts began to surface as early as 1985, when the upper bullwheel on the Teller lift at Keystone, Colorado disconnected from the main gearbox shaft. Faulty welding was blamed. Two people were killed and 47 injured. The lift was rebuilt by Yan as the Ruby lift, free of charge. During the late 1980s, the Colorado Tramway Board began to question the safety of Yan lifts. They learned that Mr. Kunczynski, in his drive to build affordable ski lifts, regularly sent steel parts to be welded together in ski area parking lots. The Board alleged that Mr. Kunczynski lifts were unsafe. The ski industry blasted the Board and continued to install Yan lifts.

Whistler, British Columbia accident (1995)

Yan detachable lifts were subject to a series of accidents, most notably the Quicksilver lift at Whistler Mountain in British Columbia, Canada. The Quicksilver accident killed two and injured eight on December 23, 1995.. The accident occurred when the emergency stop was used repeatedly. A chair started sliding downhill and struck the next chair which got stuck on a tower. This continued several times before a total of four chairs fell. The main problems with the Yan high-speed lifts were the chair grips. These were designed so that in order to stay connected to the cable, the chair had to be subject to gravity. The grips, unlike most operating today, did not have high-tension coil springs, but rather rubber "marshmallow" springs that exerted much less force on the cable. The repeated emergency brake application was enough to shake the chairs free of the cable. The majority of government safety inspectors failed to detect these problems.

The Quicksilver chairlift, which served the Whistler Creekside base area, was replaced by the Creekside Gondola in 1997, built by Poma.

New horizons (1998)

Mr Kunczynski's intense interest in renewable energy technologies results in his establishing real-world test facility in Mexico. Several new patents for his new technology are pending.

Angels Flight accident (2001)

In 2001 one of the cars of the Angels Flight funicular in Los Angeles suddenly lost cable tension - the result of a stripped spline connection. Standard design is to have emergency brakes in the cars themselves clamp to the rails in the event of a cable failure, but Angel's Flight had no such emergency braking system. This allowed one car to collide with another car, killing one and injuring seven.

Notes

^ Markels, Alex (1997-01-16). "The Rise, Fall and Return of a Ski-Lift Entrepreneur". The Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company). http://www.coloradoskihistory.com/chairlift/yan1.html. Retrieved 2008-02-29. 

^ a b "Faulty Weld Is Blamed For Ski Lift Accident". The New York Times (The New York Times Company). 1985-12-18. http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00E7DB153BF93BA25751C1A963948260. Retrieved 2008-02-29. 

^ Nixon, Emily Disaster and Emergency Management: The Quicksilver Chairlift Incident, University of Victoria, Geography Dept., April 2004

^ Pyn, Larry (2008-02-09). "Minimizing the risks on B.C.'s ski lifts". The Vancouver Sun (Canwest Interactive). http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=60e7f2b3-fad4-4b5e-ab6d-85b4248c69f6&k=68164&p=2. Retrieved 2008-02-29. 

See also

Chairlift

Gondola lift

List of aerial lift manufacturers

External links

ColoradoSkiHistory.com - A History of Yan Lifts

skilifts.org

Categories: Aerial lift manufacturers | Defunct manufacturing companies of the United States | Ski lifts | Companies based in NevadaHidden categories: All articles with unsourced statements | Articles with unsourced statements from January 2008

About the Author

I am China Bags Wholesale writer, reports some information about flexible keyboard wireless , davicom.

Saint Gobain MultiPurpose Spline FSP7338U $24.25 Multipurpose spline

Quad $19.99 NaxArt Quad - Premium Poster

Spline Interpolation $100.37 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles In the mathematical field of numerical analysis, spline interpolation is a form of interpolation where the interpolant is a special type of piecewise polynomial called a spline. Spline interpolation is preferred over polynomial interpolation because the interpolation error can be made small even when using low degree polynomials for the spline. Thus, spline interpolation avoids the problem of Runges phenomenon which occurs when using high degree polynomials. Using polynomial interpolation, the polynomial of degree n which interpolates the data set is uniquely defined by the data points. The spline of degree n which interpolates the same data set is not uniquely defined, and we have to fill in n1 additional degrees of freedom to construct a unique spline interpolant. Author: Surhone, Lambert M./ Timpledon, Miriam T./ Marseken, Susan F. Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 156 Publication Date: 2010/07/24 Language: English Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.02 x 0.36 inches

Spline (Mathematics) $78.07 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles In mathematics, a spline is a special function defined piecewise by polynomials. In interpolating problems, spline interpolation is often preferred to polynomial interpolation because it yields similar results, even when using lowdegree polynomials, while avoiding Runges phenomenon for higher degrees.In n the computer science subfields of computeraided design and computer graphics, the term spline more frequently refers to a piecewise polynomial (parametric) curve. Splines are popular curves in these subfields because of the simplicity of their construction, their ease and accuracy of evaluation, and their capacity to approximate complex shapes through curve fitting and interactive curve design. Author: Surhone, Lambert M./ Timpledon, Miriam T./ Marseken, Susan F. Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 116 Publication Date: 2010/05/17 Language: English Dimensions: 5.98 x 9.01 x 0.27 inches

Smoothing Spline $92.4 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles In mathematics, a spline is a special function defined piecewise by polynomials. In interpolating problems, spline interpolation is often preferred to polynomial interpolation because it yields similar results, even when using lowdegree polynomials, while avoiding Runges phenomenon for higher degrees. In the computer science subfields of computeraided design and computer graphics, the term spline more frequently refers to a piecewise polynomial (parametric) curve. Splines are popular curves in these subfields because of the simplicity of their construction, their ease and accuracy of evaluation, and their capacity to approximate complex shapes through curve fitting and interactive curve design. Author: Surhone, Lambert M./ Tennoe, Mariam T./ Henssonow, Susan F. Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 138 Publication Date: 2010/08/14 Language: English Dimensions: 6.00 x 9.02 x 0.32 inches

Craft Spline Speed-Control $82.95 Craft Spline Speed-Controller gives you an escape from working in percentages. Normally when you change the path or length of a spline the whole spline changes proportionately.

Shifter Spline Cover $11.99 Kuryakyn Shifter Spline Cover Simple, clean solution of how to cover the shifter spline if you remove the heel shift lever Cover measures 1/2" i.d.

Internal Spline Wheel Locks by Gorilla $18.99 Set of 4;1/2 in. thread Internal Spline Wheel Locks by Gorilla

Monkey Quad $8.99 Steez Monkey Quad - Poster

Floral Quad $199.99 Floral Quad - Wall Tapestry

Spline Functions $60 Reference/advanced text on part of applied analysis with applications in numerical analysis and computer-aided geometric design.

Cubic Hermite Spline $68.51 High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles In the mathematical subfield of numerical analysis a cubic Hermite spline (also called cspline), named in honor of Charles Hermite, is a thirddegree spline with each polynomial of the spline in Hermite form. The Hermite form consists of two control points and two control tangents for each polynomial. For interpolation on a grid with points xk for k = 1,...,n, interpolation is performed on one subinterval (xk,xk + 1) at a time (given that tangent values are predetermined). The subinterval (xk,xk + 1) is normalized to (0,1) via t = (x ? xk) / (xk + 1 ? xk). Author: Miller, Frederic P./ Vandome, Agnes F./ McBrewster, John Binding Type: Paperback Number of Pages: 92 Publication Date: 2010/07/09 Language: English Dimensions: 5.98 x 9.01 x 0.22 inches

Spline Functions and Multivariate Interpolations $348.89 This volume provides a comprehensive introduction to the theory of spline functions. Emphasis is given to new developments, such as the general Birkhofftype interpolation, the extremal properties of splines, their prominent role in the optimal recovery of functions, and multivariate interpolation by polynomials and splines.The book has thirteen chapters dealing, respectively, with interpolation by algebraic polynomials, the space of splines, Bsplines, interpolation by spline functions, natural spline functions, perfect splines, monosplines, periodic splines, multivariate Bsplines and truncated powers, multivariate spline functions and divided differences, box splines, multivariate mean value interpolation, multivariate polynomial interpolations arising by hyperplanes, and multivariate pointwise interpolation.Some of the results described are presented as exercises and hints are given for their solution.For researchers and graduate students whose work involves approximation theory. Author: Bojanov, B. D./ Hakopian, H. a./ Sahakian, A. A. Series Title: Phaenomenologica Series Number: 248 Binding Type: Hardcover Number of Pages: 292 Publication Date: 1993/03/31 Language: English Dimensions: 9.21 x 6.14 x 0.75 inches

Kohler Kohler Spline Adapter Kit GP1074231 $2.52 Spline adapter kit Kohler spline adaptor kit which includes 2 (model No. 78125) spline adapters for use with 2-handle faucets with ceramic valves Brand #: Kohler GP1074231 UPC: 650531629913 Keywords: spline adapter kit 2 hndle faucet adaptor

Princeton Tec / HEADLAMP, QUAD BLUE / QUAD-BL $53.62 Princeton Tec - HEADLAMP, QUAD BLUE - QUAD-BL

Princeton Tec / HEADLAMP, QUAD BLACK / QUAD-BK $53.62 Princeton Tec - HEADLAMP, QUAD BLACK - QUAD-BK

Bosch HA1031 SDS-max to Spline Rotary Hammer Adapter $100 SDS-max to Spline Rotary Hammer Adapters - HA1031

Bosch HC4091 Spline Speed-X 1-1/2-in, 18-in, 23-in $100 Spline Speed-X 1-1/2-in, 18-in, 23-in - HC4092

Bosch HC4062 Spline Speed-X 1-1/8-in, 24-in, 29-in $109.99 Spline Speed-X 1-1/8-in, 24-in, 29-in - HC4062

Bosch HC4063 Spline Speed-X 1-1/8-in, 31-in, 36-in $129.99 Spline Speed-X 1-1/8-in, 31-in, 36-in - HC4063

Bosch HC4052 Spline Speed-X 1-in, 24-in, 29-in $79.99 Spline Speed-X 1-in, 24-in, 29-in - HC4052

Bosch HC4072 Spline Speed-X 1-1/4-in, 24-in, 29-in $109.99 Spline Speed-X 1-1/4-in, 24-in, 29-in - HC4072

Bosch HC4043 Spline Speed-X 7/8-in, 31-in, 36-in $100 Spline Speed-X 7/8-in, 31-in, 36-in - HC4043