[HN Gopher] Gigantic Aluminium Spiders
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Gigantic Aluminium Spiders
Author : geox
Score : 79 points
Date : 2024-03-26 11:27 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (windspider.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (windspider.com)
| hailpixel wrote:
| You know, I like giant industrial projects and all, but based on
| the headline I was expecting something a little more exciting.
|
| Anyway, neat crane idea.
| pavel_lishin wrote:
| You gotta be the weirdness you want to see in the world! Let's
| learn to weld aluminum, and make our dreams come true.
| neom wrote:
| If you want something industrial, art, giant, and sometimes
| spider, there's always Storm King! :)
|
| https://collections.stormking.org/Browse/objects
|
| (It re-opens in April, if anyone happens to be in New York and
| hasn't visited Storm King, I really cannot recommend it enough,
| it's a lot of fun, Dia too, Earth Room and Beacon are magic but
| honestly they're all amazing, so fun!
| https://www.diaart.org/visit/visit-our-locations-sites)
| WJW wrote:
| I was thinking more towards the strandbeest series
| (https://www.strandbeest.com/), although those have entirely
| too many legs to be spiders and are also not made out of
| aluminium.
| tempodox wrote:
| Nice, but sadly no arachnids in sight...
| jletroui wrote:
| If you want industrial giant spider, Kumo:
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_E1PpbncR20 is a must see. "Les
| machines de l'ile" have other beasts of the same kind:
| https://www.lesmachines-nantes.fr/.
| eschneider wrote:
| For crane geeks, that _is_ pretty exciting. :)
| tshaddox wrote:
| You're not unreasonable for expecting something at least
| vaguely spider-like. This just looks like a big crane for
| assembling big wind turbines.
|
| Is the "spider" part supposed to be the web-like aluminum frame
| of the crane? That seems like a stretch, but it's the most
| charitable interpretation I've got.
| Solvency wrote:
| I thought this would be about Kevin Smith's crazy Superman / Wild
| Wild West story before clicking.
|
| I have to say... WindSpider is a pretty weird name for this. If
| anything I'd say it looks a bit more like an abstract bird/crane.
| throwup238 wrote:
| Totally underrated film that doesn't get the praise it
| deserves.
| failrate wrote:
| A "spider crane" is a particular kind of crane.
| 082349872349872 wrote:
| Thanks, it looks like what I had been hoping for is called a
| "spider excavator".
| ooterness wrote:
| Meanwhile, I was imagining giant weaponized mecha (either
| real or artistic), in the style of Spidertron from Factorio.
|
| https://wiki.factorio.com/Spidertron
| teekert wrote:
| Me too. I'm disappointed. Also, I very much doubt "no
| height limitations" as I have yet so see anything without
| limitations.
| tshaddox wrote:
| Indeed, but this company's cranes do not to my untrained eye
| resemble spider cranes.
| jt2190 wrote:
| The pictures of the Windspider Crane System on their home page
| give a good idea of how this is intended to work:
| https://windspider.com/
| semi-extrinsic wrote:
| Might take the CGI with a grain of salt though. AFAICT the
| company has existed for 4 years, has 7 employees and no actual
| office address. They own zero physical assets. Seems most
| likely they're trying to do just enough to get some patents so
| they'll be bought out by one of the large offshore service
| companies and make a nice profit.
| buro9 wrote:
| > The self-erecting crane has no weight or height limitations and
| can be used in very windy locations
|
| We have our space elevator!
| a1369209993 wrote:
| > We have our space elevator!
|
| Out of context, that sounds like a kite. Can it be used in
| locations that are _not_ very windy (like, for example, space)?
| twic wrote:
| Unfortunately not, there is no wind in space.
| whalesalad wrote:
| Came for spiders. Was disappointed.
| vitiral wrote:
| Maybe they should have called it a "Web Crane" instead?
|
| Or heck, even go for "Spider Web Crane" if they love the word
| "spider" so much.
| dukeofdoom wrote:
| Why wouldn't it be better just to build 4 smaller wind turbines
| in place of the large ones. How does the math work here.
| IshKebab wrote:
| Large ones are higher up and windy gets faster the higher you
| go. Though I think even if that wasn't the case it's more
| efficient to build a few big turbines than many small ones.
| SkyPuncher wrote:
| I believe power increases exponentially with scale.
| Essentially, Area = (pi) * r^2 (but much more complex given
| it's turbines).
|
| This article has a good summary:
| https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/wind-turbines-bigger-be...
|
| * 89ft - 0.2mw
|
| * 173ft - 0.9mw (2x radius, 4.5x power)
|
| * 410ft - 3mw (2.5x radius, 3x power)
|
| * 820ft - 17mw (2x radius, 5.5x power)
| usrusr wrote:
| In addition to the other replies, bigger rotors achieve their
| power at lower rpm. That's because blade tip speed needs to
| stay well below the speed of sound, at all sizes. Where small,
| hectic rotations are annoying, the large ones appear majestic.
| They are seen very far, but blend in much better. The small
| turbines are the ones that are catching the eye.
|
| You can spend many hours with a mix of different turbine sizes
| in view perceiving that difference without really being able to
| put a finger on it. But when you do realize how that plays out,
| you will never ever consider two smaller turbines where a
| larger would do. Chances are you'd even prefer a larger one
| over a single smaller.
| londons_explore wrote:
| Floating wind turbines can power themselves, and therefore, as
| long as there is at least a little wind, and they have some small
| propellers on the bottom, get anywhere in the world.
|
| That seems to make installation and maintenance super cheap - you
| can build them anywhere in the world, command them to sail
| themselves to the right place, and just have a ship come by and
| hook them up to the power grid in perhaps an hour per turbine.
| tempodox wrote:
| > Solution scalable to over 1500 tonnes of effective lifting
| capacity, with no height restrictions.
|
| Fascinating tech, very nicely done. I love it.
| swader999 wrote:
| I wonder how the infrasound from these affects whales and other
| marine life.
| nuancebydefault wrote:
| Somehow I like the amount of syllabes were used to spell the word
| often referred to as aluminum. Its a more colourful word
| altogether.
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