|
|
|
Spockie-Tech
Site Admin
Joined: 31 May 2004
Posts: 3160
Location: Melbourne, Australia
|
Hi Ben,
There are no hard and fast rules when it comes to building an arena for two reasons..
1, no-one wants to take liability for saying "build it like this and you will be safe", then be blamed if something breeches the arena.
2. Each Event-Operator has to decide for themselves (and their insurance company if insured) what constitutes a "safe" arena.
At a back-yard event with builders and featherweight robots only, you can probably get away with less than if you are running a public attendance event allowing heavyweights or ICE powered bots.
The FRA in the UK has published a set of guidelines with different "grade" arena's here.. http://www.fightingrobots.co.uk/documents/event_safety.pdf
Note that they are a little extreme in that by their standards noone in the world has actually built a proper grade 1 arena yet !
SideTracked have a consulting engineer who specialises in approval of fairground type rides and public entertainment construction approve their arena design. If you have public liability insurance, you will need to check what form of approvals / certification they require to be happy.
The first sidetracked arena used pine between adjacent wall sections and was floor-to-roof. The next version was 100% steel with large locking pins holding the walls together. It uses 6mm polycarbonate held into steel angle iron with load-spreading bars. The roof is a heavy dual layer nylon-ish net.
Ventilation for ICE-Rated arenas is obviously important, but the sticking point preventing them from being used at SideTracked so far has been the pit-area. The insurance company doesnt like the idea of custom-made machines with tanks full of petrol being refilled, emptied, and worked on, soldered, drilled etc around lots of sparking wires and motors in an enclosed area with no trained fire marshalls standing by at all times.
So it all depends on where you are planning on holding your events and how much you have to lose as far as protecting yourself from damage claims goes, that determines just how many I's and T's you need to dot and cross in the construction of your arena. _________________ Great minds discuss ideas. Average minds discuss events. Small minds discuss people
|
Sun Jan 30, 2005 9:07 am |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Fish_in_a_Barrel
Joined: 30 Sep 2006
Posts: 673
Location: Perth, Western Australia
|
Thanks, just for a bit of backround, I used to work in an indoor rock climbing gym, and I'm a member of the Climbers Assoc. of WA, so I know my way around an insurance form.
I was just clarifying where I stand in regard to a Perth arena. I know that I'm responsible for my own actions, but there are a lot of people who aren't willing to be responsible for their own stupidity. I realise that this is, and probably will be for a long time, a big issue, but I'm just trying to stay on the right side of it.
|
Fri Nov 24, 2006 9:26 am |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|