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520 S. Claudina St;
Unit P |
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The Invention and Development of the Scupper; “The quest to keep things dry in an indoor world of rain”
Very early on in the development of the
WaterScrim™’s we began to realize that a very strong down draft was
being created on each side of the water screen (due to friction
between the falling droplets and the surrounding air). We also
noticed that the strength of the down draft was exponential to the
height that the nozzle was trimmed at. The down draft was becoming
an issue because when it hit the troughs or catchment
We had a few ideas about how to handle
this mist laden air but it was a tough problem because it was moving
so fast and we only had a few feet available to deal with it. After
some testing and studies it became apparent that the best approach
would be to separate the mist from the In one of our light bulb moments we realized that if we could shape the fast moving air into a vortex it would “spin out” the water and then we just had to figure out how to exhaust the dry air. We tested a few ideas and before we know it, the “Scupper” was borne. Within 2 days we had refined the technology and put four 10’ prototype scuppers into operation. We immediately started putting them on rental gigs to get some real world testing done and data collected.
After the first 5 or 6 shows we were ready to push the Scupper’s development into the next design iteration as we had learned a wealth of information on these first few shows. We made a lot of improvements on Version 2 and put it into service. We worked the V-2 Scuppers to death before gleaning every bit of useful information from them. After about a year of doing shows with the V-2’s we were finally ready to build a the first production model.
After all they were in great demand as we had 40’ of WaterScrim™ V3-A systems, but, only enough scuppers for 20’ of screen and we didn’t want to make another 4 of the prototype model. Functionally the version 2 prototypes were working beautifully, we just needed to make them more durable for touring applications and clean up their aesthetics as they were often visible with certain setups. The final Version of the Scupper is constructed of Anodized and Zinc impregnated T-6 Aluminum and Carbon Fiber/GFR Composite. Not only Tough, but, Beautiful!!
Mirage has since developed additional catchment systems and recovery technologies that have revolutionized the application of our indoor water screen systems and allowed WaterScrim™’s to be used in places and in situations that would have otherwise been impossible. Some of these methods and technologies are proprietary and information regarding them is available only on a need to know basis. Please inquire if you think our mist handling systems and technologies might be of help.
The Scupper is as ingenious as it is simple and another child of the fertile minds at Mirage’s “Voodoo Projects Lab”.
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INNOVATION ENGINEERING & DESIGN |
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structure on the ground it was re-directed horizontally. We were
having trouble keeping the ground dry around the troughs because
this phenomenon was carrying mist and splash outside of the
catchment/recovery area. It was severely limiting how long we could
run the screens without having to put plastic down around the
troughs. Covering the ground with plastic was ok for the back stage
layouts, but, we new we wouldn’t be able to do this in most
situations, so, we set out to solve the problem.
