STAGE TECHNOLOGY
BOSCH REXROTH
Smooth moves
Custom technological
solutions were required
to ensure that Staatstheater
Stuttgart’s new stage
wagons could move
freely and safely
P utting on a show today often
includes complex and extravagant
set designs. Moving impressive
sets around between scenes is
no less complex a matter, and at
Germany’s Staatstheater Stuttgart, the layout
of the stage area adds to the challenge. However,
this did not put off Bosch Rexroth when it was
asked to modernize the stage technology at the
theater. The final system includes a 12 x 12m
(39.4 x 39.4ft) turntable wagon for stage sets as
well as two 4m x 12m (13 x 39.4ft) stage wagons,
a feat of engineering that moves the sets around
with an accuracy of less than 5mm (0.2in).
Big and small
One of the main challenges faced by the Bosch
Rexroth engineers in designing the turntable
wagon was that while the main stage elevators
could handle a full-size set of 12m x 12m, the
side stages could only provide space for 8m x
12m (26.2 x 39.4ft) sets.
To overcome this challenge, the engineers
devised a two-part turntable wagon system,
consisting of a primary element of 8m x 12m,
and a secondary element of 4m x 12m. These two
elements can be controlled independently or can
move as a single connected unit. This allows the
wagons to be moved through either the main
stage or side-stage elevators.
A specially designed hook-and-pin system
locks the two wagons together and sensors
ensure that the two parts remain parallel. When
connected, the smaller wagon is a slave to the
primary unit, to ensure that the movement of
both sections is completely synchronized.
72 AUDITORIA 2019 VOLUME ONE