Ride Inspections

[Danny]

I have always been curious as to how rides and coasters are inspected. Does anyone know what they inspect and how often the inspect rollercoasters and flat rides because I know that ride safety is a big component to amusement parks and I want to hear about the effort they are putting into safety?

[FParker185]

rides are inspected per manufacturers specs.

Rides tend to have daily, weekly, monthly and annual checks, usually the annual checks involve required NDT with the rest being smaller things.

[RVD420]

Good topic Danny. I too would like to hear about how inspections go.

[T.K.]

I think Six Flags is doing the best job, they would never let the ride in operations even when there are very little unusuall vibration or noises. Remeber guys, and this is very true, very true, I love Six Flags for this, at least Great America is like that. SFGAm Safety is number one. Everyday they take about 1- 4 hours to check each ride in the park.

[zjohn1988]

All rides are checked every morning. This may include test rides, wheel lubrication, stress checks, wheel assembly checks, etc. Every year, the trains are taken apart, most down to the bolts. For SFGAm, this happens during the offseason. For parks open every day, trains are annually inspected at different times, leaving the ride open to run.

[RagingBullFan]

rides are inspected per manufacturers specs.

Rides tend to have daily, weekly, monthly and annual checks, usually the annual checks involve required NDT with the rest being smaller things.

This is exactly how things are broken down...

There are your daily checks which usually consists of visual inspections, ensuring parts are tight/secure, lubrication etc.

The weekly checks usually consist of grease/lubrication to parts such as chain lifts and brake segments.

The monthly checks usually involve checking of the track superstructure.

NDT is performed in the offseason and a certain percentage of the ride will be checked each year with our in-house NDT lab and trained technicians.

Rides will have critical parts NDT'd each year, not the same part each year but following the manufacturer's specifications.

[cycamps]

On the official GAm website it said if you wanted to be a ride technician you had to have 3-4 years of mechanical background.

[FParker185]

quick question reguarding lift chain lube, PM if it's sensitive, but does SFGAm use an auto greaser for the chains or is it done manually. I remember a while back at CP on Gemini they were running one side only and they were greasing the chain manually with a grease gun one link at a time, there were there doing that for literally 3+ hours til I lost interest and moved on with my day, it looked like the absolute most tedius job in the known universe with the chain moving at a snails pace.

[FParker185]

right after I posted that, I happened to read:

http://wcco.com/topstories/local_story_197081924.html

Sorta interesting.

[Danny]

Its good to know that someplaces are doing something about inspections, because whenever I go on a carnival ride, it feels like a death-trap with all the cracked plastic and holes in the rides (well, atleast by my house)

[RagingBullFan]

Chain lubrication usually depends on the ride but its usually done manually.

The one I worked on (Cajun) we used Klüberfluid CF 1 if I remember correctly.

Most lift chains use a Kluber product of some kind, their products are amazing.

[cycamps]

So do you need mechanical background to be one of those full time ride technicians?

[demon boy]

^Absolutely, there is now way for you to sign up to be a techy with no mechanical background. Six Flags, CP, Disney, etc would have no time or anything to be able to train someone to be a technician.

[RagingBullFan]

For Full-Time yes.

For Seasonal, no experience is required. Basically as a seasonal you'll do a lot of work with the grease gun etc.

And there is no specific 'training' per say... usually you are paired up with an experienced full-time guy and he shows you the ropes.

[cycamps]

And when you're paired up is it for part or full time?

[BP317]

What RBF is trying to say is if you are hired to be seasonal mechanical maintenence, they assign you a zone and you pretty much are a grease monkey for awhile, while learning the ropes from the older guys.