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In seven seconds from 0 to 160 km/h
Stators from Aigenstadl: Speed for the fastest rollercoaster of the world
Tauscher delivers the propulsion technology for a Disney project
Peter Püschel, Freyung.
Heinz Berger proudly shows a picture of the fastest rollercoaster of the world. His company was in charge of the superlative “fastest”. Special productions always were the strength of Tauscher. Like this, the company, that produces in the former school of Aigenstadl, took the challenge to transfer the propulsion technology of magvel train to rollercoasters. Tauscher stators are a power package in the size of a flwoer box. 80 cm long, 20 cm high, 15 cm broad, 80 kg heavy - and piece for piece has a horsepower of 170! To work this out, was so far the most successfull masterpiece of the Tauscher team: “We had to pack enormous currents in a very small area, the high energy density demands a compact construction and a perfect insulation.” The stators have to deal with impulse peaks of 1000 A per second. The newest of this technology: the stators are lined up like rails. Above those the rollercoaster vehicle with the magnet is located. Once the stators get current, the wandering magnetic fields accelerate the vehicle with insane speed. The fastest rollercoaster of the world was built by Warner Bros. in the amusement park Six Flags Magic mountain. An enormous rack shaped like a L. Tauschers linear propulsion speeds the vehicle up within 7 seconds, from 0 to 160 km/h, and shoots its 41 floors vertically into the air. On top, the passengers are completely weightless for a few seconds, before they fall back towards the ground, where the linear technology works as a break. “The amusement industry permanently looks for new attractions for their parcs. The customers hesitate long, but then they’d like to have the delivery right after the order.” Because of this, Tauscher had to produce 320 stators within five weeks at the end of 1995 for Six Flags Magic Mountain, which was only possible with overtime, weekend work and the second company in the Czech Republic. A second rail, “Kings Dominion” in Australia, got their stators in summer 1996. Since december last year, theres another new customer: Disneyworld! A pilot project for a new rollercoaster is currently built in the Netherlands - and Tauscher is going to deliver 111 stators for the magnetic propulsion at the end of this week. The new coaster would be built world wide in case of success, which would mean a big order for Tauscher. It’s topic is Jules Vernes “travel to the moon”: The cabines are shot through a pipe upwards on the rails. A normal chain propulsion would never manage this uphill acceleration, only Tauschers wandering magnetic fields can manage this. “We of course hope, that Disney is positive about the order!”
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