AirSTREAM on the crest of the wave

Up to one thousand ocean-like waves roll into the artificial surfing lagoons of Wavegarden every hour. An enormous amount of electromechanical force is required to generate them. And the AirSTREAM is right in the middle of these water worlds: The duct-free wiring system by LÜTZE creates space for the many required frequency inverters and helps them to not break into a sweat.

They are called Mundaka, Uluwatu, Cloud Nine or Puerto Escondido: paradisaical beaches across the globe that magically attract surfers, because the opportunity of the perfect wave is particularly high here. Unfortunately, not everyone is lucky enough to live close to the sea, or has the means to travel to a top surfing spot.

Wavegarden's business idea is to offer everyone in the world the opportunity to enjoy the incredible experience of surfing, even if there is no ocean close by. The Spanish engineering company builds first class artificial surfing systems. They are the main attraction of large amusement and theme parks or just a great place to visit on their own merit. This Spanish company dominates this booming sector, with six successful surfing parks on four continents.

More than a decade ago, they came up with the first of this kind of surfing system with huge inventiveness and the will to experiment. Numerous optimizations and patents led to the latest generation, the Wavegarden Cove. Up to 1,000 perfect waves can be generated per hour. Their amplitude, force and frequency can be varied at the push of a button: from gentle waves for beginners, up to 2 m powerful tube waves for professionals. The technology generates authentic surf experiences as confirmed by enthusiastic professional surfers. Even supertubes, like those of the Portuguese Playa de Peniche, can be surfed very close by: for instance in a Wavegarden system in the Swiss Alps with a view of the Matterhorn.

Every Wavegarden Cove surf lagoon consists of a fan-shaped lake that is divided in the middle by a bridge that houses the wave generation system: up to 56 wave modules are installed here. Electro-mechanically programmed forwards and backwards motions generate precisely calculated water movements that run into the lake as waves.

As far as the equipment in the control cabinet is concerned, the AirSTREAM wiring system was the obvious choice because it allows the specified compact control cabinets to be installed easily: with up to 30 percent less volume thanks to the duct-free principle. A comparable component configuration with a mounting plate solution would be much larger or require several cabinets.

LÜTZE Spain delivers the completely preassembled AirSTREAM frame to the distributor for current orders. The components can be immediately added to the frame because manual mechanization is no longer necessary. The control cabinet is completed very quickly and is supplied to the designated site, where technicians can simply connect it using the prepared connections. The slim Plug-and-Play solution for the control cabinet so-to-speak.

The organizational work for this project has also been simplified: only around ten part numbers are required to order the AirSTREAM frame material. If conventional mounting plates, wiring ducts and assembly material were used, the list would be much longer.

Each project is divided into two groups. LÜTZE creates the frame for the control cabinet with power distribution per group (five cabinets in a row) and for the servodrive cabinets (eight cabinets in a row).

Also about 50 AirSTREAM Compact frames are used for extra small cabinets at particularly narrow points of the wave bridge. Even with this mini solution, three rows of rails can be positioned for adding components; other wiring types would only have allowed two rows.

AirSTREAM has another system benefit: the homogenous climate in the control cabinet. The air circulates relatively freely, completely without ducts; this also prevents hotspots and reduces climate regulation requirements. An ideal solution, especially because some of the installed and planned systems are located in hot regions like Australia, Brazil and South California. And the responsible 48 frequency inverters for the mechanical paddle movement produce a lot of heat: as the packing density is relatively high, this is almost like having a radiator in the control cabinet.

Wavegarden is currently growing, and has more than 60 projects on five continents in various states of construction and development, and is still on the same wavelength as Lütze.

Text: Martin Brinkmann, LÜTZE Spain