Most of our clients use Rexroth electric motion control in industrial applications: printing, packaging, sheet metal, textiles, and the like. If you use Rexroth drive and control technology in that setting, you might not be aware that Rexroth also moves the movies.
Some of Rexroth’s credits: Spider-Man, Master & Commander, Titanic, Jurassic Park, The Perfect Storm, Independence Day, and Men in Black.
For Master and Commander, a historical piece, Rexroth powered the machinery that moved the ship in a convincing way. A multi-axis gimbal allowed the model of the HMS Surprise to react to the waves and warfare in the script in a realistic way. In addition to producing effects that would satisfy the director, the machinery had to perform at peak efficiency for twelve to fourteen hour days every day of the five month shooting schedule. It had to work perfectly over that timeline while being pelted with waves and water. And it had to keep the actors safe throughout.
In Jurassic Park, robotic dinosaurs had to be built and configured to move in character, and in ways that worked with the computer-assisted graphics that made up a good part of the dinosaur presence in the movie. Just one of the dinosaur robots was used for shooting on location in Hawaii, and some of the robots were only parts of dinosaurs. But even if it wasn’t as big a job as it looked on screen, it was a big job for Rexroth engineers.
Rexroth engineers work on the sets of the movies, bringing the dreams of the artists to life in ways that will work in the real world, as well as on screen. The machinery has to hold up to the shooting schedule and provide realistic effects while keeping actors safe.
That’s not so far from the requirements of your facility: the machinery has to produce the desired results while keeping your workers safe. It may not have the glamor of the movies, but it’s certainly important.