Paper 13094-109
Paper 13094-109
Half moon platform: maintenance on GTC
On demand | Presented live 18 June 2024 
Abstract
In late 2021 the GTC was equipped with a fully integrated lifting work platform, providing easy and fast access to all telescope tube focal stations, i.e. Cassegrain and four Folded Cassegrain Stations. The platform offers a huge and comfortable work area, together with a high load capacity and a very short positioning time, complying with industrial safety standards. The highlight is the possibility for the staff to travel with the platform. The main benefits of the platform are safer work conditions and a shorter maintenance time, without introducing fixed elements in the telescope tube which would have degraded the tracking performance of the telescope.
Presenter
Benjamin Siegel
Gran Telescopio de Canarias, S.A. (Spain)
Benjamin Siegel has been working at GRANTECAN S.A since 2000 as a mechanical engineer in the telescope mechanics group, participating in the construction and integration of the telescope structure and mechanisms. Once the construction was completed and the GTC started operating, he became part of the development group of the GTC being responsible for the major mechanical upgrades of the telescope, like instrument rotators, access platforms and mechanics for ICMs and the recently integrated diurnal alignment instrument (see also Submission Tracking Number AS24-AS103-44).
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