igus linear guides used at long jump events

30 March 2020

In athletics, some disciplines are difficult to follow for spectators. For football, it is clear to see when the ball is in the goal. In long jump, however, it is not easy to judge whether the last jump has set a new record.

Virtual lines help the TV audience, but they are not visible to spectators in the stadium. The PrimeLine system, developed by Golden Fly Sports GmbH, solves this problem by projecting the ‘mark to jump’ onto the sand.

The mobile installation was devised by Armin Margreiter, the former national coach of the Austrian long jump team, in cooperation with the laser projection company MediaLas. The system consists of three laser diodes, which are aimed at the pit and produce a visible line even in direct sunlight. The developers needed a drive unit that could move the lasers along a range of distances from 3-12 metres.

Read the full article in the April issue of DPA.