A detachable chairlift or high-speed chairlift is a type of aerial lift for passengers, which consists of numerous chairs attached to a constantly moving wire cable that is strung between two terminals over intermediate towers. Detachable chairlift technology is significant because it is faster and therefore these chairlifts have a higher capacity. At the terminals, the chairs disengage from the cable at which point they can move more slowly than the cable itself. The slower chair speed is necessary for convenient loading and unloading of passengers, while the faster cable speed enables the higher capacity of this transport system.

The core technology in a detachable chair lift is the mechanism that provides the grip between the chair support and the cable. It consists of a robust plier that is strongly preloaded by a mechanical spring. A series of rollers, cams, and additional devices open and close the plier as the chair approaches and leaves the terminal. When the chair is detached from the cable, its motion is driven by slower rollers. The critical phases of the process are the transient ones, when the plier is activated, and the speed of the chair simultaneously changes abruptly.

Dynamic studies are required to predict the accelerations, verify that the cams are properly shaped, and to extract the loads to structurally size the parts. The multi-body model is all but trivial because it requires the combination of highly flexible bodies and the massive use of contacts. Thanks to its Full Flex capability and its premium Geo-contact technology, RecurDyn has no rivals in simulating this kind of problem. More generally, all equipment featuring cables, wires and the tools interacting with them can be efficiently simulated with RecurDyn.