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A FIRST: ELASTOMER BEARINGS TO REDUCE NOISE The employees and the machines moved to Munich and into
With consultation from Anton Schwarzkopf, in 1987 BHS a newly built assembly hall in the main factory.
builds the “Lisebergbanan” for the Liseberg park in Sweden,
which at that time was the largest stationary roller coaster DRAMATIC EFFECTS: TILTING, HINGED AND DROP
in Europe and was the first in the world to be equipped with TRACKS
elastomer bearings to reduce noise. A number of other large The new proximity of development, production and sales
customdesigned coasters followed, and a special one was the gave the company new wings. The designers were working
“Olympia Looping” in 1989, which even today is still the on a whole new set of novelties and innovations.
biggest transportable looping roller coaster in the world. “Tricktracks” is the overall term for all kinds of mechanical
special effects such as seesaw, tilting, hinged and drop tracks.
WITHOUT A HITCH: MAURER TAKES OVER AMUSEMENT In 2001, the curtain rose for the first time on tricktracks
SECTOR with the opening of the two “Winjas” spinning coasters in
When BHS was privatized in the 1990’s, the long established Phantasialand, Germany. A further highlight of the Winjas is a
Munich-based company Maurer Söhne took an interest in it high-speed vertical lift. But for all this technical refinement
– although mainly to be able to take over the highly qualified the designers always keep the passengers in mind: surprises,
staff. During the discussions it came out that the entire moments of fright, uncertainty – it has to be “a great ride.”
business sector of “Amusement Rides” fitted perfectly into The special challenge for the design engineers is that they
the portfolio of the Munich-based steelwork and industrial have to work so perfectly and come up with so many ideas
plant builder. In addition to its traditional fields of bridge that at the end nobody notices anything at all of the
building and structural steelwork, Maurer Söhne had long technical side. For example, in the case of the tricktracks this
been associated with mechanical and plant engineering, and involves a technical mastery of the interrupted track. Under
has always been committed to innovative product ideas. The no circumstances may a car go beyond the open end of the
negotiations that were held a good fifteen years ago quickly rail – the very latest safety and control techniques are the
came to the point: The manufacture of roller coasters with solution for this.
all the employees and machines was continued in Peißenberg,
although under the management of Maurer Söhne from 1993 POWERFUL: XTRAC™
onwards. The company that was set up later for this purpose Apart from the moments of fright, the complete layout of
was given the name Maurer Rides GmbH. the track is extremely important. Customdesigned layouts
were a leading topic for the Maurer engineers right from the
SUITABLE FOR FAMILIES: WILD MOUSE BEATS OUT earliest days. Back in the 1990’s, the company started using
ROLLER COASTERS WITH TRAINS its own computer programs to calculate the dynamics of the
Traditions are one thing, but only innovations make a track, and the breakthrough came in 2001: The software was
company successful in the long run. In 1996, Maurer changed over to a completely new, object-oriented basis and
constructed the last big custom-designed looping coaster reprogrammed to the very latest standards in collaboration
with trains according to the Schwarzkopf/BHS system in the with the University of Duisburg. Result: The Maurer
Space World park in Japan. The future is called “Wild XTRAC™ roller coaster track layout system, which has been
Mouse”. These flexible tracks with their individual cars have used since 2002 to calculate all Maurer tracks. The
been a huge success on the market, around 20 were built in programming has been continuing right up to today and thus
the 1990’s, and Maurer thereupon shifted its main focus to it is becoming an ever more powerful tool that allows
rides that are especially suitable for families. completely new roller coaster layouts.
INNOVATIVE: SPINNING AND FREEFALL TOWER COUPLED: XCAT™
The development of a further family coaster had been XTRAC™ did not remain alone but found its continuation in
consistently pursued and in 1999, the new ride was put into XCAT™ in 2003. The new production method is in practical
operation as the world’s first freely rotating spinning coaster terms the extended arm of XTRAC™ up to the
that was certified by the TÜV. Since then, it has been manufacture of the rails and made it unnecessary to set up
continuously developed further and has likewise made its the track temporarily on the company premises, as had
way up to become another successful product with over 20 always been done before. The track is set up virtually in the
projects so far. XTRAC™ planning tool, the individual parts are created with
At the same time the roller coaster makers in Munich the aid of the coupled, industrially highquality measuring
were dreaming of going higher, turned the rails into verticals, technology of XCAT™. As one of the few makers to do so,
and so invented the first Power Tower. The tallest Maurer thus carries out inhouse the complete planning and
transportable freefall tower was produced five times rail production according to the very latest uniform
between 1998 and 2002. This all showed one thing: Maurer standards. This saves time and going back and forth, and has
rides were in great demand. But although the production made possible a level of quality that has not been reached
capacity was optimised, the distances between Munich and elsewhere.
Peißenberg held the company back in its push forwards. The The exceptional rail quality and the high-precision, sharply
rented space in Peißenberg was given up in the year 2000. curved rail sections that have only seldom been realised
MAURER RIDES II
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