'Eye to eye with the lions'

Transparent cable netting around Lions enclosure

Safety was an important consideration in the construction of the new Lion enclosure at ARTIS. Carl Stahl Benelux provided the cable nets around the enclosure, in the connecting tunnels, in the locks and in the separation enclosure. These strong nets offer a transparency of more than 90% and meet the highest safety requirements. 

Carl Stahl Benelux was founded in 1997 as a wholesaler of stainless steel cables and plastic ropework for water sports and industry. The company is part of the Carl Stahl Group, with seventy branches worldwide and more than eleven hundred employees. Carl Stahl's cable nets are used as permanent protection in various applications. For example, as balustrade infills, fencing, stair protection and horizontal safety nets. Marketing Manager Jennifer Swagers of Carl Stahl Benelux: "We work for example in schools and residential buildings, parking garages, shopping centers, prisons, hotels and zoos. The nets are used to protect people or animals. This material is often chosen because of the nets' transparency, strength, durability and flexibility. In addition, they can be used almost anywhere." 

Engineering, production and assembly

Carl Stahl produces the cable nets in its own factory in Germany and supplies them in rolls as a commercial product, but also provides engineering and assembly for projects. This was also the case at ARTIS. The new Lion enclosure incorporates a total of 1,000 m2 of cable net, in many different sizes. On the outside of the enclosure, it consists of 150 meters of fencing, in an organic shape. "This shape made it more convenient to customize and connect the exterior netting into one net on the job, rather than in the factory," he said. The net in the canopy is made in one piece though without intermediate cables or steelwork, making it even more transparent."

Coating for greater transparency

Carl Stahl likes to think along with the client and makes a prior static analysis of all materials to be used and possibly the construction. "For each project we determine together with the client what the mesh size and cable thickness of the nets should be and we have this substantiated by the static analysis. We then produce these and they are installed by our own fitters," said Swagers. "Our standard product is stainless steel. In this case, we gave everything a black coating, including the mounting. This makes the cable net and clamps reflect less and stand out more against the background, making it look even more transparent." 

'Only our net is in between'

Carl Stahl has worked on projects at ARTIS before. In 2020, for example, the company made a corridor (aerial bridge) of cable nets from the Gibbon House to Gibbon Island. In 2019, the monumental ruin in ARTIS was restored. This forms the centerpiece of the snowy owls' and cranes' enclosure. For this enclosure, Carl Stahl produced and assembled all the cables that maintain the construction of the fence. The high transparency of the product is an important feature for safety netting in a zoo. Swagers: "Now it really feels like you are face to face with the lions. Only our net is still between them, so it feels like you are very close. For us, this was a very fun and special project."