IBT continues to assist the Ozarks amusement park with ride components, as it has for over 35 years.

Image courtesy of Schaefer Ventilation Equipment

This year, Silver Dollar City is proud to introduce Tom & Huck’s RiverBlast during the theme park’s 50^th Anniversary. RiverBlast delivers on a well-made promise: you will get wet. This new amazing ride features hand-crank water cannons with bull’s eye targets scattered along the river route. All guests can take part in the wettest, wildest river adventure: stations along the ride’s water channel offer the opportunity for spectators and riders to blast water at one another.

Randy Smith, sales rep at IBT’s branch in Springfield MO, worked with Doug Graf, Machine Shop Supervisor at Silver Dollar City, on a unique application for some large industrial fans for the new ride. RiverBlast’s design called for utilizing fans toward the end of the ride as a delivery system for spraying water on riders and enhancing ride effect.

Once Graf received the basic ride parameters, Smith contacted Roxann Smesmo of Schaefer Ventilation Equipment. She and the team at Schaefer offered solutions for the right fan size to use and the optimal combination of fans and mounting arrangements that offer the most turbulence, which is what the ride designers wanted.

For this application, IBT supplied Schaefer Ventilation 483P1 and 486P1 box fans. These galvanized box style fans push a lot of air and operate for long periods of time at low cost. Due to the extremely wet conditions of the ride environment, Silver Dollar City ordered the fans without the electric motor and utilized air motors instead.

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Schaefer Ventilation Galvanized Box Style Exhaust Fans

• Image courtesy of Schaefer Ventilation Equipment

  Available in 36" to 48" sizes; single or 2-speeds, 9,000 to 21,000 cfm; 3-phase also available
• Heavy-duty, totally enclosed, maintenance free and energy efficient motors
• Long life pillow block bearings
• Heavy gauge G-90 galvanized housing for strength and long life
• 6-wing galvanize fan blades for high efficiency and low noise; 3-wing blades available; stainless steel blade options available
• Automatic belt tensioner
• Heavy-duty aluminum exterior shutters
• 2-year limited warranty
• Made in the USA

A handful of M&C employees from the machine shop were responsible for transforming brand new box fans from Schaefer Ventilation into functional, authentic-looking fans in RiverBlast’s atmosphere.

The M&C team received an artist conception drawing from Silver Dollar City’s corporate offices of how the fans would be incorporated into the ride. They made that vision a reality with the Schaefer fans and a little time. Copper mesh wire covers the face of the fans housing. The rest, these modest guys claim, is paint and atmosphere.

The fans were turned around in short order: they were completed and installed in about a week’s time. Installation was no easy feat, given the location and weight of the 48” fans.

They had to be brought in on boats through the ride’s water channel and some areas offered very tight working space, due to the ride environment. Installation was completed just a couple of weeks prior to the RiverBlast’s grand opening, when SDC opened for the season on March 15, 2010.

For more information about Silver Dollar City, visit silverdollarcity.com.