Bells
Church Bell Automation
Our bell swinging systems will automate the swinging of bells using state-of-the-art sensors in our bell swinging motors. These systems regulate your bells to ensure accuracy and send feedback to our automated bell control unit for quality control. Americlock designs and fabricate frames that are needed to automate the swinging of a bell.
Internal Bell Strikers
Internal bell strikers are to be used on stationary bells only. If you want to turn your swinging bell into a stationary bell, an internal striker could work for you. An internal striker is usually installed on a bell when there is no room for an external striker or in the case that the client does not want the striker to be visible. These strikers can be placed on bells as small as 16 pounds and bells up to 30,000 pounds.
External Bell Strikers
External bell strikers can be used for either swinging or stationary bells. If you have a swinging bell, the external striker can be placed on the outside of the bell in order to not interfere with the swinging movement. An external striker can be combined with a rope pulling system giving you the option to have the bell ring automatically with our bell system or manually with a rope and wheel system. If you have a stationary bell, you can also place this striker on the outside of the bell where there is plenty of room in your bell tower or when people will not be seeing the bell from the ground. These strikers are normally easier to install than internal bell strikers and can be placed in a number of different locations around the bell depending on the current setup of your bell or bell tower.
Bell Swinging Motors for Towers and Churches
Our bell swinging motors can fully automate the swinging of your bell or bells using sensors in our bell swinging motors which will send feedback to our automated bell control unit.
Our programmable bell swinging motor can swing very large bells to very small bells. The swinging motor can regulate the force with which the clapper strikes each side of the bell. Both the starting and stopping of the bell is completely controlled using our bell swinging control unit.
The bell and bell structure will be protected against damage due to improper or hard bell ringing for years to come. With a number of different bells, the microprocessor can control each bell individually based on its size, weight, and mounting. The bell swinging unit will also regulate the degree of swing for each bell eliminating the chance of a double clap or the clapper staying on the bell too long, muffling the bell stroke due to improper swinging angles (making it a great church bell swinging system).
Our bell swinging automation motor also does not require much maintenance at all due to the limited amount of moving parts inside, so no oiling or greasing of the motor. This motor is also very compact and can fit into any space at the same level as the bell. No need for ropes or wires between bell levels.
Digital Bell Systems – Electronic Bell Systems
We offer two types of digital bell systems (or electronic bell systems as they are sometimes called). Our Tempora and Apollo Digital Bell Systems offer a variety of different options to choose from and you can either purchase the digital bell controller as a standalone unit if you already have speakers or we can supply a turnkey digital bell system.
Benefits of our Digital Bell Sound Systems:
Bell sounds are digitally recorded onto the solid state drive of our electronic bell systems.
No tapes that can stretch out and no CD’s to change
Programmable to the client’s needs and desires
Amazingly low cost compared to new cast bells
Digital Bell Controller Speakers
By using a solid state drive, we are able to ring and resonate up to 32 bells at one time so that your desired tune sounds like it is being played on a real bell carillon instead of an electronic carillon system. Our built in synthesizer gives priority to the resonance of heavier bells so they will not ‘shut off’ during playing time. Like real carillons, larger bells resonate longer. This is the same in our digital bell systems and carillon bell systems.
Examples of bell functions available on our digital bell controllers: Pealing of bells, tolling of bells, playing of melodies, Westminster chimes, holiday tunes, funeral toll, wedding peal, call to prayer and much more.
Tempora Electronic Bell System
The Tempora Electronic bell system comes with a range of 26 bells from a high bell note of G3 to a deeper bell note of F1. This bell system is ideal for courtyards, small plazas, store fronts, street clocks, residential applications and more. With its small size it can fit just about anywhere.
With the option to purchase our electronic bell system as a stand alone bell system, this is the most cost effective option as it gives the end user the ability to reuse or purchase their own speakers. An RCA output comes standard on our Tempora digital bell system for easy installation and hookup.
Outdoor bell speaker
The speakers we provide with our carillon bell system are compact, weatherproof, and can stand up to any of the elements outdoors.
They come in white and black but can also be painted any color you desire. This unit also comes with 4 standard outputs to control either existing bells or clocks at the same time enabling you to tie your new electronic bell system into an existing clock or bell seamlessly.
Apollo Digital Carillon System
Apollo Digital Carillon Bell System
Our Apollo Digital Carillon System is also known as an electronic carillon or digital carillon. This system comes with an array of 64 bell notes covering 5 octaves from C1 to Re#. In other terms, notes from a 16 pound bell all the way up to a 6,000 pound bell. If you choose to play even larger bells, the Apollo digital carillon can transpose notes to larger bell sounds up to a 30,000 pound bell. 10 of these bell notes can be chosen to recreate the sound of real swinging bells. Our digital carillon is capable of recreating the Doppler Effect similar to the moving sound sources heard on real swinging bells.
This electronic carillon system can be purchased as a turnkey package complete with speakers and amplifier or as a standalone unit. The speakers we provide with this unit are 800 watt, weatherproof speakers and can be upgraded to larger speakers depending on your application. Purchase 1 speaker or up to 4 speakers to be heard from a clock tower, church belfry, or town center.
Electronic carillon options:
MIDI keyboard to play tunes live or record and save them for later playback
Speech board to record and playback other non-bell sounds such as a tune or message
Remote control to start and stop up to 9 programs from a distance.
Automated Bell Ringing & Bell Strikers for Towers and Churches
Church bell ringing and automatic bell tower ringing applications are our specialty. Whether you are looking for a swinging bell ringing system or a stationary bell ringer, we can assist you in the design and installation of a custom solution!
Bell strikers can be controlled by three different types of controllers for automated ringing. Automated bell strikers are ideal for towers and churches where difficult bell tower access or convenience demand an automated bell striking solution.
Automatic Church Bell Ringers
We’re experts at creating the perfect automatic church bell ringers for your building. Review the four typical automatic striker systems below or give us a call to discuss your automated ringing needs!
Internal Bell Stiker Photo
Internal bell strikers are to be used on stationary bells only. If you have a bell that is a swinging bell but would like to turn it into a stationary bell, an inside striker could work for you. An internal striker is usually installed on a bell in the case that there is either no room for an external striker or in the case that the client does not want the striker to be visible. These strikers can be placed on bells as small as 16 pounds and bells up to 30,000 pounds.
By placing a striker on the inside of your bell, you can give your bell a clean professional look with all the power to strike your bell with rich clean bell tone.
In the event you would like to place a striker on the inside of your bell, we will send you a bell measurement sheet in order for you to give us the proper measurements required to customize a striker for your bell. Each bell is different and not all strikers are the same. That is why proper measurements are needed in order to get the best sound out of your bell while maintaining the integrity of your bell and frame.
With an internal bell striker, it can be controlled using one of our three bell control units.
External bell strikers can be used for either swinging or stationary bells. If you have a swinging bell, the external striker can be placed on the outside in order to not interfere with the swinging of the bell. If you have a stationary bell, you can also place this striker on the outside of the bell where there is plenty of room in your bell tower or when people will not be seeing the bell from the ground. These strikers are normally easier to install than internal bell strikers and can be placed in a number of different locations around the bell depending on the current setup of your bell or bell tower.
Rope pulled bell striker
Rope Pulled Strikers
Rope pulled strikers can be placed on the inside or outside or your bell depending on what you are trying to achieve. We can upgrade old pull strikers with a newer stronger pull striker. With our pull strikers, you can either pull a rope manually, or the bell can be rung with the use of a controller.
Tubular Bells Strikers
Strikers for Tubular Bells
A different type of bell striker is made especially for tubular bells. Americlock uses a special frame for fixing the tubular bell striker which can also be used for suspending the tubular bell itself. Using nylon Kevlar strings, we can safely attach the tubular bells to the frame while striking the tube to give you the clearest sound possible. In the case that you have gold colored tubular bells, the strikers and fixing systems can be painted a gold color. In the case that you have chrome or silver colored tubular bells, the strikers and fixing systems can be painted a silver color as well.
These tubular bell strikers can be controlled by a controller, an electronic keyboard, or using an existing organ setup with a Midi function.
Bell Towers
Americlock can help design your next bell tower. During the design, fabrication, and building of your bell tower, we can coordinate with the client and different trades to ensure your project stays on track.
We can build bell frames for stationary or swinging bells to your specifications or design a frame that fit your needs. We offer turnkey solutions for your project. Americlock has solutions for servicing, maintenance, and updating your bells or carillons.
Bell electrification systems and carillons
Our company specialises in the design and manufacture of bell electrification systems for all ringing sounds and uses in both Italy and throughout the world: Ambrosian, Venetian, Ligurian, Piedmont, Roman, swinging, half swinging, concert, with any type of festive ring, funeral rings, with daily, weekly, monthly and yearly programming and an automatic selection of programmes.
Electronic carillons for the production of all types bell ringing sounds.
We have recently studied and designed a new computer to control and programme bells. This is a completely new concept in Italy and the world in the field of bell electronics: it is the JUBILEUM TERTIUM MILLENIUM computer.
JUBILEUM TERTIUM MILLENIUM represents a genuine revolution in the field of bell electronics. This computer is an intelligent sexton and bell ringer which manages bells with precision and punctuality. It never makes mistakes, never forgets anything, and has zero management costs. With programming available in any language, it can be configured for the entire liturgical year.
It can be adapted to all electrification systems and to any type of ringing: peal, Ambrosian, Veronese, Roman, swinging, half swinging, toll and carillon.
It is very simple to use and easy to programme, it can create any type of programme, it automatically adapts to daylight saving and is equipped with over forty carillons, with the possibility to produce any type of local sound.