Dear Colleagues
We have a pair of Kistler force platforms flush mounted in the floor of
our laboratory. The work we are about to undertake requires a more
compliant surface than our hard laboratory floor and bare platforms;
consequently we have a strip of athletics track (Mondo) to be rolled out
across the laboratory.
A colleague has suggested that this strip could simply be rolled across
both platforms from one end of the laboratory to the other. I expect
that this would mean that horizontal forces measured by the platforms
would be attenuated through shear forces being supported by the track on
either side. The natural solution to this would be to cut holes for the
platforms, with pieces of track glued to the platforms and a small gap
between the track attached to the platforms and that running across the
laboratory on either side.
This method poses a difficulty in aligning the track, however. This
product is very heavy and difficult to manoeuvre to exactly the right
place. This is an issue for us as we need to lay down and remove the
track on each day's testing to accommodate other users of the
laboratory.
Does anyone have experience with the use of running tracks in a
laboratory where this track is not permanently in place? Do you have a
solution that can be easily rolled out and then removed?
Thank you for your kind advice.
Peter Sinclair
Faculty of Health Sciences
The University of Sydney
p.sinclair@usyd.edu.au
We have a pair of Kistler force platforms flush mounted in the floor of
our laboratory. The work we are about to undertake requires a more
compliant surface than our hard laboratory floor and bare platforms;
consequently we have a strip of athletics track (Mondo) to be rolled out
across the laboratory.
A colleague has suggested that this strip could simply be rolled across
both platforms from one end of the laboratory to the other. I expect
that this would mean that horizontal forces measured by the platforms
would be attenuated through shear forces being supported by the track on
either side. The natural solution to this would be to cut holes for the
platforms, with pieces of track glued to the platforms and a small gap
between the track attached to the platforms and that running across the
laboratory on either side.
This method poses a difficulty in aligning the track, however. This
product is very heavy and difficult to manoeuvre to exactly the right
place. This is an issue for us as we need to lay down and remove the
track on each day's testing to accommodate other users of the
laboratory.
Does anyone have experience with the use of running tracks in a
laboratory where this track is not permanently in place? Do you have a
solution that can be easily rolled out and then removed?
Thank you for your kind advice.
Peter Sinclair
Faculty of Health Sciences
The University of Sydney
p.sinclair@usyd.edu.au