11. August 2021

Wire rope art at Goodwood Festival

What actually happens to the many Jakob ropes that leave our production facility in Trubschachen to destinations all over the world? A special project with wire ropes from Trubschachen was installed at the Goodwood Festival in the UK this summer.

The "Goodwood Festival of Speed" is a motorsport event where a sculpture is unveiled every year. At this year's festival, that sculpture was a tensegrity structure, equipped with wire ropes and Forte fork heads by Jakob. The sculpture (designed by Format Engineers) created the stage for the unveiling of a new sports car from Lotus Cars.

For the construction of the sculpture, Jakob (through our sales partner MMA Architectural Systems) supplied 251 stainless steel ropes with a total length of 750 meters and diameters from 6 to 26 millimeters. All ropes from 8 millimeters and thicker were equipped with Forte fork heads. In addition, the ropes were adjusted to their specific operating load and direction of rotation within the sculpture. When installed, the tensioned ropes stabilize the complex metal framework of the free-swinging sculpture.

All ropes were manufactured in Trubschachen in May 2021. Subsequently, the ropes were delivered to the UK for assembly. With the material delivered on time, our British customer Littlehampton Welding took over the assembly of the structural metalwork and the integration of our wire ropes.

After the end of the Goodwood Festival, the sculpture will now move from Westhampnett to the headquarters of Lotus Cars in London.

(All photos by Crate47)