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Traffic booms for test track

The Nissan Motor Company Rosslyn production plant in Tshwane, Gauteng, has increased the security at its test track facility with the addition of three Turnstar Velocity traffic booms and a custom-built electronic tally system.

The company, which currently employs 1832 people at the Rosslyn plant, required stricter access control to the test facility. The test facility includes a racetrack used to test various features and capabilities of the vehicles manufactured at the production plant.

“Turnstar provided Nissan with two Velocity booms with 3-metre-long barrier arms, and a further one boom with a 5-metre-long barrier arm. The booms are situated at the three access points into the racetrack/test track at the facility. The requirement from Nissan, for both safety and security reasons, was that only one car is allowed into the track area at any one time,” says Craig Sacks, MD of Turnstar.

Sacks explains that if a car is already on the track, the three Velocity booms will be deactivated for any possible further entry, with the tally system indicating ‘1’. When the vehicle leaves the track using one of the three booms, the tally will indicate a ‘0’ and entry of one vehicle will then once again be permitted. Together, the booms and tally system ensure that there will never be a time where two vehicles are on the track simultaneously, thereby eliminating the possibility of an accident occurring.

“We also installed an entry and exit button at each barrier to allow for entry/exit and to allow the entering or exiting driver to either increase or decrease the tally count,” says Sacks. A red and green LED strip was fitted to the aluminium barrier arm for increased visibility.

In order to ensure seamless operation of the system, the Velocity booms were supplied along with a solar system that includes a 100 W solar panel with two 20 Ah batteries, providing the 24 V necessary to operate the barrier and the tally system.

The Velocity boom’s durability and longevity is guaranteed with the inclusion of a number of design features that include the replacement of commonly used tension springs with superior adjustable compression springs for barrier arm balancing. In addition, the sturdy octagonal barrier arm is driven by the SwiftDrive brushless DC motor with planetary gearbox, with a high power-to-volume ratio and 100% duty cycle.

For more information contact Turnstar Systems, +27 11 786 1633, craig@turnstar.co.za, www.turnstar.co.za

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