Assumption of Risk

This website provides partial documentation of the Kappel Rigging Trainer (KRT), a tool for teaching manual counterweight rigging parts, functions, and procedures in the classroom. Builders and users of the KRT and its documentation assume responsibility for all risks associated with their use.

• The KRT is not a substitute for hands-on training and practice with real rigging systems.
• Teachers using the KRT assume all responsibility for the delivery of accurate information.
• Students have a responsibility to seek out a qualified instructor and receive in-person, hands-on training before attempting to operate any real counterweight rigging system. Never operate a counterweight rigging system without proper training and permission.
• KRT Builders have a responsibility to ensure that what they build is safe for users.

No Warranties or Guarantees

The Kappel Rigging Trainer is provided “as-is” with no warranties or guarantees, without exception. The KRT materials are not guaranteed to be without errors. The documented design has not been verified to meet any particular benchmarks for structural strength, reliability, fatigue life, etc.  

Open-Source License

The KRT materials have been made available under an open-source license as indicated below. This license permits both commercial and non-commercial use of the materials. This license requires that any work derived from the materials must be shared under the same license with appropriate attribution given to the authors below. This is only a summary of the license terms. See the link below for the full details.

Exclusions

The Kappel Rigging Trainer does not claim ownership of the designs of the real rigging equipment used in counterweight rigging systems. Anyone using the KRT materials for any commercial purpose assumes all responsibility for abiding by applicable intellectual property law.    

Sharing Derived Work

Derived work must be shared publicly. Derived work may be submitted via the contact page to be shared with the other KRT materials and the community of KRT builders.

AI Disclosure

No part of this project was generated using AI tools. When conducting web searches for this project, information returned by Google’s AI Overview was occasionally referenced. In Adobe Lightroom, the machine-learning powered object removal tool was used for some minor photo editing. To the designer’s knowledge, no other machine-learning powered tools were used.

Funding & Sponsorship Disclosure

The University of Illinois

The primary sponsor and copyright-holder of the Kappel Rigging Trainer is the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Specifically, the following units provided support for the project: the College of Fine & Applied Arts (FAA), the Department of Theatre (Illinois Theatre), the Scenic Technology Program, and the Krannert Center for the Performing Arts (KCPA).

Sponsorship of the project entailed the following:

• Use of university facilities, computers, and software available to students and faculty
• Employment of the designer through a Graduate Assistantship in Scenic Technology (Fall 2024)
• Funding of physical materials by Illinois Theatre and Scenic Technology (<$1,000) (Fall 2024)
• Experimental use of the KRT in the course delivery of Stagecraft and Intro to Stage Rigging
• Employment of the designer as a salaried Research Specialist (August 2025 – May 2026)
• Use of the Krannert Center scene shop for prototyping, fabrication, and storage
• Use of the CNC lab at the Siebel Center for Design (for waterjet cutting)
• Use of university booth space at the USITT25 conference in Columbus, Ohio

Self-Funding

Many of the material and shipping expenses for the development and promotion of the KRT were self-funded by the designer. As of July 2026, this investment is around $10,000. Additionally, much of the time spent on the project did not fall under the employment periods mentioned in the previous section resulting in an extensive personal labor investment. Since the start of the project in September 2024, the designer has logged approximately 1,500 hours.

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