Unitec American Parking Equipment - Manual (Page 24)

Document Number: GC1001 20
Document Title: Unitec APE Gate and Gate Controller for Multi-Lane Applications Installation Guide
TO
CARWASH
GATE
Gate Reset
Loop
MERGE
LOOP
WS2
WS2
9 ft.
Figure 18. 2 Lane Short Merge Zone Loop
2.1.2 Determining the Number of Required Merge Loops
The number of loops required depends on the size of the merge zone area. The
sensitivity and size of each loop must be such that a vehicle can’t stop in the middle
of the loop area and be undetected.
If you can keep the merge area short by merging quickly to a single lane as shown in
the figure below, you can use a single loop across the lanes. As soon as a car gets
beyond detection by the loop, they are far enough into the single lane area to keep
another car from passing and getting out of order.
For wider areas (3 lanes or more) the merge area must be longer to allow for all lanes
to narrow to the single lane. In those cases a loop needs to be installed for each lane
to be covered. The loop coverage area needs to detect any vehicle that is in a
position where another vehicle could get past them on the way to the wash tunnel
entrance. The exact configuration will vary from site to site, but a three-lane example
is shown in the figure below.