Welding Wonders: Disney’s Spaceship Earth, Florida

If you cast your mind back to the beginning of August, you might remember that we promised a series that looked at some of the biggest and most impressive welding wonders of the world. As a company who specialises in supplying TIG welding gas, we thought it would be interesting to look at welding in more detail. In the first part, we looked at Cloud Gate – one of Chicago’s most iconic structures. For those who missed out on this post, you can read it here. Today we are picking up the series with another iconic structure in America, this time one that is located in a very popular part of Florida – Disney World. Read on for this amazing welding wonder – The Spaceship Earth. The ‘Spaceship’ Spaceship Earth stands at impressive 182 feet tall, making it one of Disney’s most iconic structures ever to be constructed. It was the tallest attraction at Disney World until the Cinderella Castle in Magic Kingdom was built. Spaceship Earth was built to be a symbolic representation of the way in which Disney wanted to bring the world together through the use of technology. Construction Disney are well known for designing and building an attraction before even thinking about the structure. Therefore, it was a surprise to everyone when Spaceship Earth was designed first – the ride inside being an afterthought. Originally planned to be a geodesic dome, it was soon changed to a geosphere. They wanted the structure to be raised 20 feet off the ground – something that caused a lot of difficulties during construction. The three main structures; the sphere, the ride and show, and the utility structure, were all engineered separately. The sphere was made from steel wide-flange struts of A572 Grade 50 steel – three different sizes were used. Six support legs penetrated the frame, as well as an elevator shaft and ride tube. The Welding Most of the welding was carried out away from the site. Structural steel assemblies were either prefabricated in the shop or they were put together on the ground so that they had complete control over it. Although Spaceshift Earth has an incredibly unique design – the welding used was pretty standard. It was described as being similar to an average construction project. The welding inspection was taken extremely seriously – referred to as being the same as a Nuclear Power Plant. Semi-automatic submerged arc welding was selected and used. Around 20 technicians were asked to take part in the inspection. After the metal structure of the sphere was finished, 9ft panels of galvanized sheet metal covered with neoprene rubber was when inserted into the open space. Once sealed with rubberised material, the outer layer of polished aluminium was fitted into place. Epcot Park draws in over 10 million people a year – how many of them are aware of the hard work and welding that went into building the amazing Spaceship Earth? If you’re a welder who is looking to purchase specialist welding gas, please don’t hesitate to contact us. You can give us a call on 01843 220168 and we will be happy to help you out.

For more information on Welding Wonders: Disney’s Spaceship Earth, Florida talk to Adams Gas