Some 1,700 students graduate from OST – Eastern Switzerland University of Applied Sciences at the Rosenbergstrasse campus each year, with about the same number continuing their further education at the institute. That they keep a cool head while doing so is not least of all due to the presence of drive solutions from elero – Sun Shading Solutions Nice, which automate the textile sun protection.
The ground-breaking ceremony at Rosenbergstrasse was held fifteen years ago, on 1 May 2009. Four years later, at the beginning of February 2013, the University of Applied Sciences moved into the campus with its large-scale façades. The campuses in St. Gallen and Rorschach were closed and the new university in the immediate vicinity of St. Gallen central railway station opened its doors to students, with the official opening ceremony taking place in July 2013.
A little over ten years later half of the drives initially installed in the sun protection system that was intended to ensure pleasant temperatures in the university building no longer function – simply because they overheated as a result of the adverse conditions. In the intermediate glass, in which the textile screens operate, temperatures of as much as 80 degrees Celsius are measured at times – depending on the levels of solar radiation and the running times of the drives. As the fabrics had to be replaced after a certain period of time, the sun protection system was refurbished in its entirety at the same time, whereby a total of 960 SunTop M12/23 tubular drives from elero were installed. meimo, a specialist for visual and sun protection solutions from Geroldswil, takes care of customer support and project supervision on site in Switzerland.
The wired version of the SunTop M is particularly suitable for the operation of different types of textile sun protection (shafts of 50 mm upwards). With a running time that is about 30% faster, it was ultimately possible to guarantee that the heat development in the intermediate glass was not as intense and that the drives were significantly less prone to error. The corresponding tests were simulated beforehand. The entire upgrading of the drives and shading fabrics was then completed using an exterior lift.
Three workers – two specialists in the lift and one outside the lift – were deployed from May through to September. The contractor was Ammann Storen AG. The new “Twilight Pearl” PVC-free shading fabrics were provided by Sattler Schweiz GmbH.
