Spanish based design consultants Equipo 63 from Madrid approached Czech-based trussing manufacturers MILOS to custom build a large stand for their client at London's World Travel Market exhibition, staged at the ExCel Centre.
Equipo 63 are known for their innovative approach to design and build projects of all types, and are always keen to incorporate cutting edge technology in the process.
They have worked with MILOS and used their products on many previous occasions, and the relationship continues to flourish due to the flexibility of the MILOS product range, and the speed and efficiency with which MILOS can deliver special projects.
On this occasion, the Equipo 63 team designed the stand, which included a 12 x 12 metre square ‘crown' flown above, holding a 10 metre diameter circular truss ‘inside', which was used to hang a series of projection screens making a 360 degree internal panorama.
Equipo 63 then approached MILOS with their concept, and asked them to come up with a structural solution and all the required logistics to make it work in situ.
MILOS' Jiri Bruza project managed from their end. He specified their M290V trussing and worked closely with Equipo 63 to ensure the end result would be easy to assemble and rig.
MILOS developed some special connecting brackets to enable the lower of the two circular trusses to be attached to the bottom of the rectangular box on a series of arms. The top circle was attached onto the box structure's top trussing runs, and the whole square trussing construction was braced by additional runs of M290V across its 4 spans.
The two circular trusses were made without cross bracing allowing the screens to be easily attached.
The circular truss units were held inside the square independently, connected with special clamps to the main structure. Very detailed bracing was required to ensure smooth connections between the two units. MILOS also had to integrate four horizontal trusses joining the lower corners of the square truss and the circle units to which projectors were rigged, and also fabricate special 4-way corners and forks for connection onto the circles.
The M290 system is MILOS' mid-size truss line in their popular Quick Truss family. QuickTruss M290 "V" is ideal for both large and small applications. The heavy-duty “V” Range format offers great spanning and weight loading capabilities, whilst also being very aesthetically pleasing. The Conical Connection system makes it extremely quick to assemble, it's available in custom lengths and junctions, and can be curved.
The biggest challenge for the MILOS team was the tight timescale. They had only 3 weeks to build everything in the Czech Republic and deliver to site in the UK, including the many special features. “We had to fabricate several custom connecting pieces requiring great detail, and also constantly consider the weight loadings across the whole structure,” says Bruza.
Once onsite, the structure was assembled according to a comprehensive and user-friendly set of drawings and installation instructions supplied by MILOS.
Staged annually in London, World Travel Market is a high profile business to business exhibition providing a unique opportunity for the whole global travel trade industry to meet, network, negotiate, conduct business and stay abreast with the latest developments in the travel industry.