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Project Details

Fabric 1

Polystar/Tough Stuff
Producer/Manufacturer: W Wiggins Ltd
Primary Use: Main Fabric

Please describe the project specifications

A new indoor trampoline park was to be opened and I was approached to be the sole manufacturer of the crash pads and padded boxes for the whole area. Their specifications included bright and colourful, appealing for kids of all ages and must meet all the safety standards. They wanted to make the transition from the floor to trampoline mats seamless (on the same level) and professional-looking. With the constant wear and tear, the manufacturing had to be durable and created robustly.

The purpose of this project was to create a fun, colourful and most importantly safe environment for kids to play in and have fun. My role was to create the crash padding for the whole 500+-square metres of area. The centre boxes were covered with foam and PVC with safety as priority. There were many challenges in the process, such as the strict time frame. It became very clear we would have to make a lot of important decisions well ahead of time.
The construction design was brand new, having never been done before. At first, the design concept planned to have all the same sized padding everywhere for faster manufacturing. However, from the first on-site measure this became clear it would not work. For everything to ‘line up,’ the outside pads, centre pads and the pads for around the boxes all had to be different widths and lengths. This made it challenging to order the foam so far in advance, and therefore time was not on our side.

What is unique or complex about the project?

What was truly unique about this project, was that the chain system hadn’t been done before, typically being done with framing. A new way was needed to attach the crash pads to the high tension chains to ensure that they were firmly secured with high foot traffic.
Awning track was used around the outside edges to slide the crash mats into. The middle crash pads had a central webbing with ties, which were used to tie to the chain. Velcro flaps were sewn in to join the pads together to create one large jigsaw. As the project was still under construction, I had to work around their time frame and measure up sections of the project at a time. There were many late nights to complete this job on time.

After 6 weeks, the results were a safe, fun area for kids to play that also met all the safety standards required. They met the design specifications of a vibrant and highly functional complex. The client was over the moon, with feedback from them “an eye for detail and a perfectionist.” The client was so impressed they kept adding additional things for our business to cover, because they were in awe of how it looked. The whole projecting was very rewarding to see the completed product.

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