Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by Kadin 2648 days ago
Looking at the swingset photo (https://www.europol.europa.eu/sites/default/files/styles/eur...)

That's an interesting design of swingset; not one I've seen before.

Unlike the bog-standard swingset in the US, which is typically all steel tube, that one looks like it has extruded (aluminum?) verticals and then a tubular horizontal weldment as the top piece. Further, the horizontal looks like it was hot-dip galvanized as a finished unit. The verticals were painted before assembly, not after, because of the bare-metal bolt heads. The fasteners are presumably stainless, since I don't see any rust marks below them. It's got an interesting bearing/bushing at the top of each chain, probably to make it not squeak; that strikes me as a fairly luxe feature.

I couldn't find any similar ones searching around online, although my Google searches don't turn up many European models at all (thanks, Google).

The photo doesn't go up enough to be sure, but it looks like the top bar is an unbroken one-piece section. That would make it pretty bulky and awkward to ship. (The vertical pieces look like they come apart into about 4 ft sections, which means they were likely palletized at one point. Maybe the extrusions are not done in the same place as the rest of the manufacturing..? That's certainly plausible.)

If someone recognized the design/model, I think that would probably be a significant clue towards the photo's location; at the very least, the manufacturer would probably have a fairly good idea of where they normally sell to.

4 comments

Replying to myself because I got an email from a user with a match:

http://igra23.ru/katalog/karuseli-kacheli-balansiry/kacheli-...

It has the swept-bend tubular corner reinforcements, the polyethylene (or some other kind of plastic) panels on the upper corners, etc. The only difference I can see between the product photo and the Europol one is that, in the Europol photo, the top bar seems galvanized rather than painted. But that's the sort of thing that could easily change as a product is marketed.

It appears the company is out of Krasnodar (Краснода́р), located in southern Russia.

This is an exact fit. Great job
Looks like a Lappset to me. That does not help much, they are selling in at least 50 countries https://www.lappset.com/Contact-us
This is not it, but is pretty close (just found by google images on: "playground swings aluminum square posts").

[0] https://www.eibe.net/en/swing-kondor-51007201100.html?c=5010...

Is that an unusual swingset design? I'm pretty sure i've seen it in lots of places...
The metal arches as reinforcements in the top corners are not so common. The use of polyethylene plaques as decor and reinforcements started in 1970 it seems.