One of the most famous waterparks, which is a part of a well-known amusement park in Europe, chose to expand with two rides that belong to Polin’s Extreme Slides Series.
Aqua Splash Waterpark is surely one of the most popular waterparks, located on the French Riviera near Antibes, Juan Les Pins, France. Aqua Splash Waterpark is a part of Marineland Espace. Marineland Espace hosts four different parks, namely; Marineland, Le Ferme du Par West, Aqua Splash Waterpark and Adventure Golf Park. Marineland was founded in 1970 as an animal exhibition park. Marineland still hosts the killer whales, dolphins, seals and attracts thousands of visitors every year. Additionally, it has an aquarium with a 30 meter tunnel surrounded by sharks. The park has been purchased by a very well known international entertainment operator, Parques Reunidos based in Spain in 2006. Since then, the popul
arity of the park increased tremendously.
Aqua Splash Waterpark of Marineland added two Polin slides of which the installations have just been completed by Spring 2009. One is a Turbo Lance with a start tower of 13, 5 meters. The initial slide length is 64, 4 meters. Turbo Lance being one of the extreme slides of Polin Waterparks and Pool Systems is specially designed to live the joy of different sliding paths. Riders first experience a steep/big drop down and then they are propelled uphill vertically. Then they experience another unforgettable path this time a reverse path taking them over a bump and ending into a splash pool. Turbo Lance is concrete evidence to Polin’s customer oriented, flexible, efficient design understanding. This high capacity slide promises to deliver an unforgettable ride experience which resulted in long queues in the park in such a short time.
The other addition to the park is Space Boat again with a start tower of 13, 5 meters. The initial slide length is 97 meters. Space Boat is one of the most exciting and one of the largest Polin rides for speed riding. It is engineered to create ultimate excitement. The riders experience three different sensations of excitement in one slide. They first experience the excitement of an enclosed flume exiting into a huge open bowl and continuing with several whirls around the sides of the bowl with centrifugal force; and finally ending with a slide.
The park operators chose to have a colorful Turbo Lance and a Space Boat rather than a single color choice which we believe, created a great visual harmony in the park. For example, in the Space Boat, in the bowl part, the bowl itself is colored from light to dark colors consistent with the sliding path. This is a unique color choice that we applied till now. When you enter the bowl part, you start riding on the light colors and gradually you continue riding on the darker colors. Both slides were engineered to provide a truly magical experience with the highest possible adrenaline. The slide part of both of the slides are RTM – Resin Transfer Moulding- manufactured with a perfectly smooth and shiny finish on both sides. This surely added value to the general appereance of the park. Plus, we used “Natural Light Effects” just before entering the bowl part in the Space Boat. Polin manufactures the slides with NLE with a very special technique that makes it possible for the natural daylights go through the slide and create a harmonious colorful effect inside the tunnel slide when combined with the effect of flow of water. These effects created naturally take different forms depending on the status of the daylight during the day. This is really a dynamic living experience rather than a static effect.
More About Polin’s RTM Waterslide Manufacturing:
Resin transfer molding (RTM) is a low pressure closed molding process for moderate volume production quantities, filling the gap between the slow, contact molding processes and the faster, compression molding process, which requires higher tooling costs. Advantages over contact molding methods are a uniform thickness, two finished sides and low emissions. For optimum surface finish, a gel coat would be applied to the mold surface prior to molding. High quality parts are being produced by this method.
Polin has been a pioneer in the advancement and application of the Light RTM process in waterslide manufacturing. Since 2006, Polin has converted to Light RTM on over 90% of its annual fiberglass production. Closed molded fabrication through RTM offers a number of advantages:
We and eventually our clients obtain products with shining/smooth internal and external surfaces. Therefore the slides are aesthetically far superior than the ones obtained from open molded processes.
The raw material used in RTM products, that are multiaxial fibres (multiaxial mat), are far more strong than those (chopped strand mat and roving)used in Hand Lay Up and Spray Up methods.
The waterslides by RTM manufacturing is stronger and lighter.
Compared to the open molded processes, we are able to obtain far more homogeneous thickness distribution.
RTM production offers important environmental advantages. It offers a cleaner environment since the styrene emission is much lower than the other 2 methods. Plus, physical waste is much less than the conventional methods. These facts are very important for a company like Polin feeling environmental responsibility.
We obtain a visually superior product.
The brightness and smoothness of the external surface facilitate its usage. Since the surface is smooth, it doesn’t get dirty quickly and is easier to wipe. Now it is much easier to keep the slides clean.
To sum up, we obtain superior waterslides both aesthetically and physically in less time and with less waste.
POLIN is the first European waterslide manufacturer that uses RTM technology in waterslide production and Polin is the single waterslide manufacturer in the World that produces World’s largest waterslide components using RTM technology.
For additional information or to schedule an interview, contact Sohret Pakis at +90 262 656 64 67 or sohret.pakis@polin.com.tr.
This Press Release was first pubilshed 15th October 2009
