Das

TK

Mag

azin

Nac

hh

alti

gkei

tD

as T

K M

agaz

inN

ach

hal

tigk

eit

Das

TK

Mag

azin

Nac

hh

alti

gkei

tD

as T

K M

agaz

inN

ach

hal

tigk

eit

TK

Mag

azin

eM

otio

n

magazineIf you want to get things in motion, you had better get moving yourself. At ThyssenKrupp, our ideas and technology create products that move people all around the world

TK

Citi

gate

SEA

Tino’s father is helping build a steer-by-wiresystem that could one day replace the traditionalmechanical linkage between steering wheel androad wheels.

Defining technological progress.

Markus Schlegel and his colleagues are working on a new kind of steering system.The innovative systemoffers clear benefits in terms of crash safety, function-ality and fuel consumption.

Innovations like these make us into one of the world’smost successful automotive suppliers. Another reasonwhy ThyssenKrupp is such an attractive investment.

Visit us on the Internet: www.thyssenkrupp.com

Tino Schlegel, 13

“My dad makes electronicsteering wheels.”

TK

Developing the future.

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 1

Going down new avenuesBy Prof. Dr. Ekkehard D. Schulz, Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG

You cannot look into the future, but you can lay foundations for the

future – for the future can be built.” It wasn’t a management con-

sultant who said this, but the poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, and

yet it reads like a business maxim that also applies to ThyssenKrupp AG

and our motto, “Developing the future.”

But those who want to develop and build the future have to start

moving. All the many pioneering innovations and inventions thought up

by our employees show that ThyssenKrupp is moving. Reason enough

to devote this latest issue of the ThyssenKrupp Magazine to the topic of

movement. You will see that we interpret the concept of movement in

the broadest possible sense, and as a Group that continues to focus its

competence: We have developed the TWIN elevator, we use a previ-

ously unknown technology to produce shock absorbers, we engage in

simultaneous engineering to shorten development and planning times

in the automotive industry, we produce a special metal for luxury

watches, we develop escalators with changing speeds or install them

(as in Toledo) into the side of a mountain, we make ball bearings of

hardly known dimensions, and we help restore the former grandeur of

such national symbols as the Forth Rail Bridge in Scotland.

All these examples – to name just a few of the ones illustrated in

this magazine – prove ThyssenKrupp’s innovative power. We recognize

challenges and look for solutions. “The world is full of problems,” Max

Planck said several decades ago, but this scientist, who like no other

brought movement into the world of physics and was awarded the

Nobel Prize for his achievements in the area of quantum theory, quick-

ly added, “Work is what lends depth to our life vessel. To grasp the

value of this work there is a saying that expresses the ultimate judge-

ment that remains valid for all times: You will know them by their fruits.”

The fruits of all our employees are recognized and respected

around the world. The name ThyssenKrupp stands for quality at the cut-

ting edge of technological innovation. We thus follow in the footsteps of

such company forefathers as August Thyssen and Alfred Krupp. Exact-

ly 150 years ago, Alfred Krupp, for example, obtained a patent for a rev-

olutionary invention – the production of a seamless rolled train wheel.

Fueled by an inventive and entrepreneurial spirit, he, too, thereby in-

stilled considerable movement in Germany in the phase of early indus-

trialization.

This is what we are committed to, on behalf of our customers.

They are the target of our development work – whether they can enjoy

a smoother drive thanks to our technology or brave a ride on a roller

coaster made with ThyssenKrupp steel.

We don’t stay in the same spot, but venture down new avenues,

alone and with the right partners. One such partner is the German pop

group PUR. Millions of people will be moved by PUR when their new CD

comes out and the group starts its German tour in October. What do we

have in common with PUR? The band stirs emotions. ThyssenKrupp too

aims to stir emotions, among our employees and outside the group. We

want to show that a high-technology group lives from the potential of its

employees and works on behalf of other people.

Discover anew the ThyssenKrupp world, with all its movement, in

this new issue of our magazine.

Prof. Dr. Ekkehard D. Schulz, Chairman of the Executive Board ThyssenKrupp AG

2 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

4 Come with me to Never-Never Land Hartmut Engler, singer and songwriter for the rock group PUR

14 Staying safe - and comfortable - on the streetsSophisticated shock absorbers from ThyssenKrupp Bilstein

20 Gliding up the mountainTaking visitors up to legendary Toledo via escalator

28 Cruising in style across the deep blue seaBlohm + Voss turns out the ultimate in yachts

34 Making it togetherThyssenKrupp Automotive could almost build an entire car

38 Keeping dry, down belowCopenhagen’s new subway presented a big waterproofing challenge

42 Measuring time and qualityThe steel used by luxury watchmaker Rolex is extremely specialized

50 Ready to pursue new opportunities and ways of doing things“We have to bring movement into thinking,” Prof. Dr. Ekkehard D. Schulz says in an interview

54 Not much moving with ZenoThe ancient Greek was the philosopher of non-movement

TK Magazine

4 PUR is a top German rock group and an advertising partner of ThyssenKrupp. Meet lead singer andsongwriter Hartmut Engler.

54 There is no movement,according to the ancientphilosopher Zeno. He evenhad a theory to “prove” it.

94 As a rowing cox,Stefan Lier needs to be in total control:He knows the 8-man crewis relying totally on him.

58 Poseidon,the world’s firstwater roller coaster,is one very wild ride.The engineers arealso impressed.

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 3

58 Steel is one secret behind a unique roller coasterKeeping thrill-seekers safe means exhaustive testing and design

66 An enthusiast of the ringsAlfred Krupp invented the seamless train wheel

74 Keeping things turning in industryBig rings and bearings are Rothe Erde’s speciality

78 Still a logistically complicated conceptEfficient steel making is done in steps

84 Longer rails a key to Britain’s new high-speed train serviceState-of-the-art tracks are used in the Channel Tunnel Rail Link

88 Not the usual ups and downsThe new ISIS elevator uses an entirely new concept

92 Getting to the goal even fasterSimultaneous Engineering saves time and money

94 Backing the winners in sports and educationThe “up 2” program is helping student rowers like Stefan Lier

102 Scotland’s beautiful, unshakeable landmarkTo keep it that way, upgrading is underway on the Forth Rail Bridge

108 Making good time on an “accelerating walkway”An easy way to pick up the pace on those long walks

112 Editorial directory

2 | 2003 Contents

66 Alfred Krupp had toovercome major obstaclesto build his vast steel-makingempire. One of his mostimportant discoverieswas made 150 years ago.

42 People buying a Rolex expectthe very best – and that also goesfor the steel in this luxury watch.

34 Makers of parts and components for vehicles are increasinglybecoming systems partners for the big carmanufacturers.

Come with me

By Heribert Klein | Photos Claudia Kempf

Much has happened. That’s why he will soon start on another journey to Never-Never Land:Hartmut Engler, songwriter and singer of the rock band PUR. And ThyssenKrupp will accompany him as the tour’s partner

to Never-Never Land

Eyes begin to shine when Hartmut Engler’s fans meet him. He just takes them along and lets them dream and forget everything, for a quiet moment.

Imagination holds the key

8 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

If they have achieved what society calls success, it is above all be-

cause they have written words in which so many people have found

a deep expression of their own feelings. The contemporary musician

Hartmut Engler and the post-Romantic poet Joseph von Eichendorff

have a lot in common, even if they lived a century apart.

As von Eichendorff wrote:

I have really tried, and fought, to endure,

It is the deep longing for life

As for Engler, he put it thus:

Eagles should fly,

The one standing on the top step,

Is the one who flies very far.

What really counts in trying

Is the inner victory

No one can take Engler’s position right at the top away from him: He is

the lead singer and main writer for PUR, probably Germany’s most pop-

ular rock band. The success of the five-member band’s next tour, which

begins in Cologne in October, is already guaranteed, with numerous

concerts – and even supplementary shows that have been added to the

schedule – already sold out. The group’s new album, being released at

the same time, is expected to be a big seller.

And why not? The group’s fans, mostly but not exclusively young

people, will be singing along with the new songs as well as the old ones.

Even when Engler stands still, quiet on the stage for half a minute or

more, the bond between artist and audience is there, as he looks out at

the thousands of pairs of eyes. At this moment, it seems as though he

has flown farther than anyone.

But anyone who flies first has to learn it, from takeoff to landing.

It is not an easy task, working against gravity to go high, and then high-

er and higher, to where freedom is unlimited. But how to endure until

unlimited freedom can be obtained, something that can take years,

even decades, and which requires constant effort? Some guidance may

be obtained from the PUR song Never-Never Land:

Komm’ mit,

Komm’ mit mir ins Abenteuerland,

Auf Deine eig’ne Reise,

Komm’ mit mir ins Abenteuerland,

Der Eintritt kostet den Verstand,

Komm’ mit mir ins Abenteuerland,

Und tu’s auf Deine Weise,

Deine Phantasie schenkt Dir ein Land,

Das Abenteuerland

Come along,

Come with me to Never-Never Land,

On the path you’ve chosen,

Come with me to Never-Never Land

It’s time you learned to live again

Come with me to Never-Never Land,

With your eyes wide open,

Imagination holds the key

– to Never-Never Land

The balance between logic and emotion is a trademark of PUR, and En-

gler himself is not some distant figure remote from the concerns of or-

dinary people. When we met him, one recent late morning, he had just

returned from jogging to Galaxy Studios in the quiet Belgian town of

Mol, where he and the rest of PUR were completing the new album. No

press photographers or screaming teenage fans awaited, and Engler

looked relaxed and natural. When he stood near a photograph of Jimi

Hendrix in the studio cafeteria, the difference in styles was obvious; En-

gler is unlikely to startle, or to make any sweeping political statements.

But can this singer born in 1961 be simply described as a mem-

ber of the “Golf Generation,” a term used in Germany – “Golf” referring

to the car model, not the sport – to describe young people more inter-

ested in careers and lifestyle than in broad political issues? He does be-

long to it, yet he brings an additional perspective to his work.

THE TOWN OF BIETIGHEIM WAS IMPORTANT FOR THE GROUP

“Four of our PUR members have parents who were expelled from their

homes,” Engler points out, referring to the expulsion of ethnic Germans

from formerly German parts of eastern and central Europe at the end of

World War II. “That is important for us, for when you have been ex-

pelled, you hold on even tighter to home. Maybe we were, subcon-

sciously, brought up under this thinking.”

That doesn’t mean PUR is opposed to travel: They have been to

Nashville, London and now Belgium to make albums, and Engler enjoys

spending extended periods at his house on a sunny island in southern

Europe. Still, “home,” in PUR’s case the southern German state of

Baden-Württemberg, “was very important for our band and its de-

velopment.”

Enough said; let’s leave the rest to music

PUR has found a large audience – with a type of music and lyrics that ring true to people of all ages.

He has made music his profession.

Success has long put him in the public

limelight, but he wants to be left in peace in

his private life.

ThyssenK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 11

In fact, the band got together way back in 1978 in a small town,

Bietigheim-Bissingen, and even if it had been in the local “metropolis”

of Stuttgart (25 kilometers, or 16 miles, away), Engler says it would

have been hard to stick together for so long.

Back in those days, the band was known as OPUS, and in the

early 1980s they released their first album, OPUS 1, which they put out

on their own because they lacked a record contract. There followed a

long line of hit albums, and a name change.

Engler is a star who on the stage radiates self-assurance but at

the same time is known to be gracious off-stage to his fans and other

individuals. He is not some temperamental, fragile Michael Jackson; he

enters a room quietly, without fuss, has a quiet, measured voice in in-

terviews, and is careful to distinguish between his work with PUR and

ideas that may be strictly his own.

But he is a public person, and isn’t that everyone’s dream? Dream

or nightmare, that is the question, he suggests.

“Being a public person is not mentioned in the description when

you decide to make music your profession,” says Engler. “At first you

think, ‘this is nice,’ but you don’t see the other side of it, and the high

price you have to pay for it.”

“Serves you right,” some people would probably say: When you

sing to millions about the end of human relationships, you can hardly

be surprised when, as Engler personally discovered earlier this year,

media interest in your own marital break-up is intense. He knows there

is not anything he can do when some tabloids go deeply into his private

life, even if he finds it almost intolerable.

“When dirty laundry gets hung out in public, the fun is over,” En-

gler adds. “At present I am not commenting any more on my private

life. When someone asks about it at a press conference, I say, ‘next

question, please.’ I want to be left alone with my private life. Anyone

who is interested in it should listen to my albums, because there is a lot

about my private life hidden in them.”

As he put it in the song Ungeheuer (Monster):

Du weißt nicht, ob ich bin, wie ich scheine

Du weißt nicht, wie ich gerne wär,

Du weißt auch nicht, wie ich dies and das meine

Denn alles geb’ ich nicht her

You don’t know if I am how I appear,

You don’t know how I’d like to be,

And you don’t know how I mean this and that,

Because I don’t give it away.

But as calm and patient as he comes across in an interview, Engler

could not be such a talented interpreter of feelings if he was free of such

emotions himself. His glance is steady when he declares that he does

not like being mocked as a fool by the tabloids, and he sees his treat-

ment by parts of the press as confirmation that society hasn’t really

changed since Roman times: People want bread and circuses, and in

today’s society that means humiliating a celebrity at regular intervals.

He’ll accept the lesson, as he learned from other painful experi-

ences, as when late-night comedians including the popular Harald

Schmidt enjoyed mocking the band as “a handful of fat Swabians.” It

ultimately was a factor in Engler’s losing 20 kilograms (44 lbs.) through

a rigorous exercise program, and these days, when he appears in black,

he looks fit and agile. How much it matters to his fans is unclear; PUR

has long had cult status in Germany. Not that success came overnight.

FOR THE FANS, PUR IS A CULT GROUP

The band members graduated from the Gymnasium academic high

schools that are a prerequisite for university and flirted with academic

careers (PUR’s creative musical spirit Ingo Reidl studied piano at a uni-

versity-equivalent music school, while Engler studied German), but they

knew all along that they really wanted to strike out on their own as mu-

sicians, Engler recalls. “We always felt like adventurers and simply

wanted to make music. We weren’t the types who let bosses boss them

around. None of us did military service. We only got our first record con-

tract at the end of 1987.”

The name OPUS was abandoned in favor of PUR by then, and

there followed in 1990 and 1991 groundbreaking appearances on the

Hitparade show on one of Germany’s two public TV stations, ZDF, and

then the important prize of the German music critics, which meant more

recognition. “The band,” Engler continues, “has naturally continued to

develop. But if you listen to our music from back then and compare it to

today’s, it is the same band making the same music.” Perhaps, but with

the difference that PUR is now an object of mass adulation – a darling

I watched many leave; I usually stayed

12 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

of the public, if not all the critics. But then, this phenomenon is not new.

As the post-Romantic thinker Eichendorff, who was born in an ethnic

German area of what is now Poland in 1788, wrote in his study Die

Deutschen Volksschrifsteller (German Popular Writers), poets like

Claudius and Berger had both a “serious and humorous way, in which

you always sensed the quiet, almost arbitrary irony of an intellectually

inspired self-awareness.”

Put simply, the popular tone of their writing did not grow natural-

ly, but was purposely imposed by the writers. Engler sees the problem

in dialectical terms. Naturally he would be happy if PUR’s commercial

success was matched with the kind of critical acclaim heaped on the ex-

tremely popular German singer Herbert Grönemeyer. “Fringe music is

not necessarily, but can be, very good music. But the opposite idea is

also not true: We have found a big audience among the public, and that

doesn’t mean we are making bad music.”

NO GROUP WORKS WITHOUT A BUSINESS PARTNER

The oft-asked question of whether performing in a football stadium in

front of 70,000 fans changes the character of making music is one he

answers directly: A big tour, he says, is an often euphoric experience in

which feelings are intense and the musician wants to keep them per-

manently alive. “But after the tour you go back into normal life. How you

cope with success is a question of character. We are known for treating

people fairly and decently.”

That sounds a bit like a business principle, as the old OPUS mu-

sicians have evolved into a flourishing musical enterprise. In the early

days all band income was divided eight ways, to give the stage man-

ager, lighting designer and sound engineer an equal share with all the

band members, which gave everyone enough to live on. Today, a PUR

tour requires professional management, because it is a big event that

has dozens of people working behind the scenes. Engler and band-

mates Reidl, Roland Bless, Joe Crawford and Rudi Buttas are making a

lot of money these days, but few of even the big groups can operate

today without a partner.

“The price of tickets is based on whether there is a partner or

not,” says Engler. “If we didn’t have a partner like ThyssenKrupp, the

price for tickets would have to be significantly higher.”

PUR opted to seek business sponsorship several years ago, al-

though admittedly without a clear concept at the time: A savings bank

along with a private TV stations and companies producing shoes, min-

eral water and beer were all among the early round of sponsors. About

two years ago PUR opted for a clearer message, and made Thyssen

Krupp its exclusive partner. A rock band and a technology concern

might, on the surface, seem a curious partnership, but talking with En-

gler it becomes clear that an almost familial feeling has developed be-

tween both sides. Engler in particular recalls a concert given by the band

to ThyssenKrupp employees at Dortmund’s Westfalenhalle in November

2001, when ThyssenKrupp Chairman Ekkehard Schulz spoke of the spe-

cial importance of confidence and optimism in politically and economi-

cally difficult times. Engler is also impressed with the current Group ad-

vertising campaign that features children proudly showing products

developed by their parents, who are ThyssenKrupp employees.

“This kind of emotion simply convinced me, especially coming

from a Group that is mostly involved in developing high technology,”

says Engler. “That ThyssenKrupp of all companies would advertise with

emotion, waking emotions in people and trying to bring them closer to-

gether, is just great. What do we do any differently in PUR? We also try

to speak to people across generations, using the full variety of feelings

and sensibilities. That’s why ThyssenKrupp is the ideal partner for us –

and it’s a company that is serious about what it thinks and produces.”

In the context of the campaign Engler was himself photographed

and filmed in the main building of the university in Stuttgart, in the

brand new TWIN elevator, in which ThyssenKrupp uses a revolutionary

concept to run two cabins independently of each other in the same

shaft. What impressed him most was the shining eyes of the children

as they posed for a photograph with the singer.

Music, said the brilliant, late violinist Yehudi Menuhin, is

mankind’s last hope. Hartmut Engler surely would not dispute that

claim. He is in the best sense a musician for the people, one who takes

them along on his journeys to the land of dreams, confident that he has

found what von Eichendorff also liked to pursue: the magic word. 7

Schläft ein Lied in allen Dingen,

Die da träumen fort und fort,

Und die Welt hebt an zu singen,

Triffst du nur das Zauberwort

There sleeps a song in every thing

Dreaming on and on,

And the world will rise to sing,

Just find the word of magic

*All English-language excerpts from poetry or song lyrics in this article

have been translated from the German original, except “Never-Never Land,”

the officially released English version of “Abenteuerland” by PUR.

Just a moment ago, I was still playing Indians

Hartmut Engler was happyto be photographed in the TWINelevator in Stuttgart for theimage campaign ofThyssenKrupp. “I think it’s greatthat the company advertisesand stirs emotions,” he says.

Photo Daim

lerChrysler

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 15

Damping the vibrationsDrivers glide along, thanks to ThyssenKrupp Bilstein shock absorbers

Where would our mobile world be without shock absorbers? We

rarely give these devices a thought, and yet without them we

would stagger and bump, reel and sway, from one rough

stretch of pavement to the next. But thanks to shock absorbers, we can

enjoy the ride.

Curious, then, that this success story starts with a linguistic error.

“Shock absorbers are really vibration dampers,” explains Stephan Reb-

han, a wiry engineer in his late 30s. He works for ThyssenKrupp

Bilstein, part of ThyssenKrupp Automotive, in the village of Mandern in

western Germany’s Hunsrück region.

Rebhan is responsible, in particular, for the “active systems”

product center for dampers, which is probably the current innovation

leader in this particular technology.

Rebhan is a man who can talk extensively about complex physics

and yet often comes up with simple illustrations for concepts too com-

plicated for any layperson to understand. For example: “The car does-

n’t rest on the shock absorbers, but on the springs. The dampers pre-

vent the car from jumping across the street like a young deer.”

The standard setters from the Rhineland division of TÜV, a major

German technical testing service, phrase it even more simply: “Shock

absorbers ensure contact with the road. Sound road contact is a pre-

condition for the transfer of steering and brake forces from the wheel to

the road.”

Yet the concept that can be summed up in such a simple phrase

proves, at closer look, to require highly sophisticated technology. What

the engineers at ThyssenKrupp Bilstein have in common with the tech-

nical standard setters from the Rhineland is their defined goal: Reduc-

ing the vehicle’s vibrations to ensure maximum, continuous contact be-

tween the wheels and the road.

Experts say that shockabsorbers prevent the carfrom jumping across thestreet like a young deer. The dampers reduce thevehicle’s vibrations as much as possible.

By Benedikt Breith | Photos Dieter Rüchel

16 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

Driving as though in a “vehicle on a hook”

A new word, “skyhook,” is making the rounds in the field, although the

“vehicle on a hook” is not reality but a way of thinking about what new

damper technology can do: Figuratively speaking, the car body is lifted

slightly by an imaginary hook, making the damping effect on the body

and the passengers inside it substantially greater than on the wheels,

which remain firmly planted on the pavement.

But while the logic is fairly simple, the technology required to

achieve it is exceedingly complex. “Improving a shock absorber means

reducing the force itself while also maximizing the damping of vibra-

tions,” Rebhan notes. “To this end, we have developed sophisticated

systems to fine-tune shock absorbers.”

As he explains, when a car drives across an uneven surface it in-

evitably creates vibrations that have to be damped lest the ride become

not only intolerably uncomfortable but also unsafe. But the new active

system lowers the car’s body by 15 millimeters (about 0.6 inches) when

the speed rises above 140 kilometers per hour (88 mph), thus increas-

ing driving stability and reducing air resistance, irrespective of the vehi-

cle load. Hanging from the sky hook is a heavenly feeling: the improved

synthesis of suspension and damping, of push and pull, is key to the

impression that heavenly powers are withdrawing the vehicle from all

earthly influence.

AN ACTIVE SYSTEM FOR VARIABLE DAMPING

Movement creates movement, but today’s concept of automobile com-

fort implies reducing the effects of this on the passengers as much as

possible. An axis, for example, typically has a proprietary frequency of

10 to 15 hertz, while the vehicle body has a proprietary frequency of

only 0.9 to 1.5 hertz.

Not only man, but his car, too, can sway and reel. It is part of the

so-called development of acceleration that literally calms down the ve-

hicle. The skyhook system regulates the damping force based on com-

plicated regular algorithms; in other words, the active system amounts

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 17

to a variable, situation-specific damping. Anybody wishing to glide

smoothly along the autobahn can switch the chassis to “soft,” while a

person wishing to work out their frustration after a bad day at the office

can switch the chassis to “hard” and get (as in a Mercedes E-Class, for

example) the sports car feeling.

Those who want to avoid both extremes, and are interested

only in comfort, will find that the suspension and damping rate are

regulated by the automatic steering mechanism, depending on the

driving style.

This type of shock absorption system has a sleek appearance.

The absorber now being built into Mercedes S-Class cars, and increas-

ingly in E-Class vehicles, is about half a meter (20 inches) long, with a

black coating and a simple exterior that betrays nothing of its highly

complicated interior. And, asks Rebhan, why should it? A tour of the

machine hall with Rebhan provides no more than a hint of the meticu-

lousness and technical creativity that characterize production here. In

the machine hall, the tolerance values move within the range, and all

parts have to be sparkling clean. A special washing installation cleans

pipes, screws and rings – in short, everything that will later be inserted

into the damping system (partly, this is already done by the supplier).

All the machines are covered and partly shielded from the outside world

with transparent walls. The bright, sun-lit halls appear entirely spotless.

Altogether, about 600,000 air suspension chassis are built here every

year for such top brands as Mercedes and Jaguar.

Before the shock absorber is finally closed, it undergoes a whole

series of production steps. The sample shock absorber, which is used

for demonstrations, offers insight into the interior and thus illustrates

the sophisticated technology to non-engineers. In principle, the vibra-

tion energy is transformed into heat through liquid friction; a piston

presses hydraulic oil alongside spring washers, and this flow resistance

generates the shock absorbing effect. In principle, that is. The core

component of the new Adaptive Damping System (ADS II) is pneumat-

Engineers know that steel dampers today are highly complex devices. The new adaptive damping system (ADS II) has a central component: air suspension for optimal damping.

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 19

ic suspension. There is an air spring, a thin membrane that is blown up,

fits tightly to the wall, and thus closes in the pressure. This air spring

eventually has to carry the vehicle.

A DAMPER RESEMBLING STARSHIP ENTERPRISE

“The material is relatively thin but nonetheless extremely tear-proof,”

explains Rebhan. “A balloon, for example, has a pressure of 0.05 bar,

but in our damper these membranes have to resist up to 20 bar.” Ad-

ditional volume can be switched on and off through a valve in the air

chamber. The resulting possibility of adjusting the air suspension (in the

case of the Mercedes E-Class) harbors part of ThyssenKrupp Bilstein’s

suspension magic: Maximum air filling means softer basic suspension,

while reduced filling guarantees a harder, sportier drive. All perfor-

mance graphs are checked at the end – and have to be found to be op-

timal before an air suspension chassis can leave the plant.

According to Rebhan, the sales potential of such adaptable sys-

tems is high, maybe even immense. And there’s apparently limitless

potential for cost-benefit-optimized new developments on which the

engineers are currently working and which will go into serial production

next year, to be used not only in sports and luxury cars but possibly in

all vehicle classes. Many different components can be supplied for dif-

ferent versions, such as an external gas compartment, if no other space

is available for construction reasons.

Rebhan dubs the system for the all-terrain version of the Mer-

cedes E-Class the “Starship Enterprise. You simply can’t attach more

technology to a wheel.”

August Bilstein, who founded the company 130 years ago to build

window building fittings in Ennepetal, in the densely populated Rhine-

Ruhr region, would hardly have believed it possible that 800 employees

would be one day be working under his name – and that of his son,

Hans – to produce such technological wonders.

And not in some big industrial city, either, but in a rural – and

obviously very creative – idyll. 7

Switching the chassis to soft

Developers say vibrationdampers are complex unitsconsisting of a multitude of individual parts. A wheelcould not accommodateany more technology atthis point in time.

20 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

A new view of La ManchaIn Toledo, ThyssenKruppescalators carry people up the famous mountainside

By Sebastian Groß | Photos Ayuntamiento de Toledo

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 21

The walkways help solve alogistical problem: they providean environmentally friendlymeans of transporting thousands of tourists to Toledo’shistoric city center – withoutdisturbing the peace of its nar-row streets. The concept evenwon a special prize.

The walkways are divided into several sections in a zigzagalignment. This way, usershardly notice that they are traveling up 36 meters. During the ride, though, they can enjoy a great view over La Mancha, Don Quixote’s home.

Visions turned into reality

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 25

If it had been there for Don Quixote, the quick-witted knight and hero

of La Mancha, he and his entourage might not have made their grand

entry into Toledo on horseback through the city gate. They could have

glided up on the new escalator to get to the Alcana, the marketplace in

the old city center.

The master of illusions was here, as written in the ninth chapter of

Cervantes’ novel, and just like today’s tourists he enjoyed surveying

“his” country, La Mancha, a place that has inspired many a poet. Flat

countryside, as though painted, the soil a deep ochre, a landscape of

glowing lightness, featuring ocean nights without an ocean and waves

without water – a place for dreams and visions.

A PLACE THAT DRAWS HOARDS OF TOURISTS

Yet that’s where the dream ends, for reality – at least in the eyes of Tole-

do city officials – is dominated by an ambiguous phenomenon: the

thousands of tourists on pilgrimage to this “Toletum” (a “small, fortified

settlement,” in the words of the Roman historian Titus Livius) who bring

much-needed revenue but create problems at the same time. For Tole-

do lures crowds like no other place in the Spanish region of Castille.

What do they hope to see, feel, experience here? Apparently, the tran-

sitions from one epoch to another which, comparable to the rings on an

old tree, have imprinted themselves irredeemably on the city. The paths

of Romans, Goths, Maurs, Christians, Jews and Arabs, Orient and Oc-

cident, have crossed here. Like Don Quixote, they arrived and left

through the Arco de la Sangre, sights set on the Alcazar, the city’s sym-

bol. Visions can become reality. “We have prize-winning visions” is the

Walkways for the great outdoors

The construction planners’ goal: thewalkways should blendinto their surroundingsas much as possible.Planners had to solve manifold problems,from the soft ground onthe mountainside to thefolded support wall.

26 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

Future technology for a world cultural heritage

motto not only of Don Quixote, but also of ThyssenKrupp Elevator. Its

Spanish subsidiary, ThyssenKrupp Norte, has just won the Project of

the Year Award from the highly regarded industry publication “Elevator

World” for a vision turned reality in Toledo.

An entirely prosaic project, perhaps, but one based on a simple

formula that has allowed Toledo to keep more of its poetic charm: The

streets of the old town are too narrow for the level of traffic, and the his-

toric center was facing collapse under the pressure, until a novel solu-

tion was devised: Why not use escalators to bring tourists up to the

plateau of the old town?

A brilliant but simple idea. Yet, as always in life, what seems so

simple is actually quite difficult, since escalators are usually designed

for department stores and railway stations, not mountain slopes. Still,

the challenge ThyssenKrupp Elevator faced in Toledo was not entirely

new, since the company had already installed all-weather escalators

and walkways in St. Ulrich, Italy, to take skiers from the parking area to

the lift station.

A CITY WITH A VISIBLE HISTORY

In Toledo, tourists arriving by car are guided to a basement car park in

the Paseo de Recaredo with parking for 400 cars, and from there

through a small tunnel underneath the old city walls. This is where the

fun starts, though some visitors may ask how that can be: After all, they

still have to overcome a 36-meter (118-foot) height difference, as cal-

culated from the bottom step.

For the engineers, a major problem was a slope where sufficient-

ly stable ground did not start until a depth of 30 meters, which meant

that drilling poles had to be driven deep into the earth to hold the 120-

centimeter (48-inch) bottom plate in place. Then there was a consider-

able psychological problem: Toledo’s city officials weren’t looking for a

roller-coaster effect, yet that is what a trip at too sharp an angle up a

36-meter slope feels like. This problem was addressed through a “bro-

ken-up” alignment of escalators in six separate sections, each of which

accommodated the particular topographic factors of its section. Finally,

landscape planning meant that aesthetic factors had to be taken into

account: Nobody wanted a standard escalator ruining the sight of the

venerable old walls of a city that was conquered by Alfonso VI in 1085

and until 1560 was the capital of the Spanish kingdom.

In the end, architects, structural engineers and construction plan-

ners contributed a lot of brain power to tackle the challenge of equip-

ping the old town with modern escalators while maintaining its historic

appearance, and they succeeded. From a distance, visitors do not see

an imposing concrete construction that spoils the medieval picture;

rather, the impression is of a small cut in the side of the mountain: a

folded support wall was erected alongside the escalators that serves as

a canopy roof for users and, covered in greenery, blends into the moun-

tain. The result: the six sections of escalator, in sets of three alongside

each other, now help solve the city’s problem. Stainless steel was used

for the handrails, the fixing strips and the connecting sheets to keep the

outdoor escalators rust-free.

It is not a high-speed trip (unlike the prototype of the “moving

walkway” which ThyssenKrupp Norte has developed) that awaits visi-

tors, but a tranquil tour. The higher they get the better their view of the

new parts of the old city and the wide stretches of La Mancha from

where Don Quixote once left to conquer the world, on an old mare,

thinking only of Dulcinea del Toboso.

So how many visitors come to see where Don Quixote erred

through the world? The fact is that Toledo has a logistical problem:

60,000 people live in the city, yet the historic core measures no more

than 100 hectares (247 acres). One million tourists (mostly from Madrid)

flock to the city every year, but since most of them are day visitors who

do not stay overnight, they only bring limited revenues to Toledo.

Initial figures show just how important the escalators are for Tole-

do. Even off-season, they still transport 5,000 people daily. On week-

ends, up to 40,000 people use the 100-meter-long stretch of

escalators.

For the city officials it was an experiment that worked, but only

after some major construction problems were overcome: For example,

large trucks could not be used because the streets in the upper part of

the city are too narrow, so many construction components had to be

airlifted up. A zigzag shape was chosen to conceal the real height dif-

ference and give travelers a more pleasant sensation of climbing grad-

ually (and to keep the noise down to 60 decibels). Visitors reach the top

near the imposing historic building of La Diputación.

Naturally, the escalators are monitored by the usual state-of-the-

art control systems, and the technical interior – drive and braking sys-

tems – is equipped with a host of special features. For example, the

speed of the escalators is reduced from 0.5 meters per second to 0.2

meters per second when they are not being used – a feature that en-

sures the sustainability of this system and saves energy; indeed, from

a transport policy perspective, the entire concept has a sustainable ef-

fect: the historic city, a UNESCO world cultural heritage site, is spared

an onslaught of cars and their fumes, people can move freely in the nar-

row, winding streets, and the escalators are an energy-efficient means

of transport that can still carry up to 6,750 travelers per hour.

A SUSTAINABLE PROJECT

So they are a blessing, the movable staircases anchored deep into the

soil of La Mancha. No doubt Don Quixote, that legendary tilter at wind-

mills, would have recognized them as dangerous enemies whom he

would have faced bravely. And his servant, Sancho, would probably

have said what he said so often: “I will not move from your side. For if

I move just one step, a fear overwhelms me that all devils and ghosts

would appear.”

Probably only one member of the party would have gladly accepted

the services of the escalators: Rosinante, Don Quixote’s faithful but weak

horse. She would doubtless have preferred gliding on an escalator to

trudging up the steep hillside to the gates of Bisagra or Cambrón. 7

27

The walkways in Toledo can transport up to 40,000 peopleon one weekend. In the eyes of the city fathers, the constructionexperiment was thus a huge success. Toledo’s historic city center has been protected.

Thanks to 3-D virtual reality on the computer, customers get an early impression of what their boat will look like “in reality.”

Full steam aheadBlohm + Voss builds cruise ships and Mega Yachts –unique creations that are thought up on the computer before they take shape

By Sebastian Groß | Photos Blohm + Voss

Electronic simulation turns a cross-wire model into a finished ship. This entails altered production processes and reduces throughput times.

Computer-based shipbuilding

32 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

Since time immemorial, man has striven to overcome his own lim-

itations. Since flying through the skies and walking on water are

not abilities given to us by nature, we have found ways to get

around our natural limitations by building airplanes and boats – small

and slow ones initially, then large and very fast ones.

When it comes to boats, especially fast and complex ones, their

birthing assistants are the shipyards – not least the one that still carries

the name of two men who registered a shipyard under their names in

the Hamburg commercial register in 1877: Hermann Blohm, the son of

a Lübeck merchant, and the blacksmith’s son Ernst Voss.

Times have changed, but the names have stayed the same, as

anyone visiting Hamburg’s lively port can see: Stand on the famous

Landungsbrücke and let your gaze wander across the Elbe River and

you will certainly see the name “Blohm + Voss” printed in huge letters

on dock gates and walls. The shipyard – today a part of ThyssenKrupp

Technologies AG – still occupies a vast terrain with its specialized

ship-building and maintenance activities on the Steinwerder in Ham-

burg’s Free Port. The venerable towering cranes stand next to the no-

less-imposing covered dry docks where ships are built for both mili-

tary and civilian needs. Mega Yachts, cruise ships (fast monohulls),

frigates and corvettes are all part of Blohm + Voss’s offering.

A LOW-COST YACHT ISN’T A CHEAP BOAT

Yet it would be incorrect to assume that ships are being built in serial

production here, explains Dr. Frank Josten, a ship construction engi-

neer who works in civilian ships acquisition at the shipyard. “Each one

of our boats is built individually,” he says. Indeed the “ancestral por-

trait gallery,” the colorful collection of accurate scale models of every

ship that has ever been built by Blohm + Voss, shows that in the civil-

ian area at least this is definitely true. Outstanding examples of indi-

viduality are the Mega Yachts, which carry names such as the

Savarona (built in 1931 and still the biggest private yacht, measuring

124 meters, or 407 feet), the Katalina, the Lady Moura, the Golden

Odyssey and the Eco, or such fast cruise ships as the Olympia Voyager

and the Olympia Explorer.

For customers who order a yacht, let alone a Mega Yacht, money

is not usually an issue, but their vessels are always the mirror image of

their owners, a factor that does not always make for easy cooperation

with the shipyard.

“Those who commission the building of such a boat are used to

getting what they want. They employ technical advisers, consultants,

designers, architects – together with them we have to work out the de-

tails and build the yacht accordingly,” Josten explains.

Uniqueness presupposes extraordinary, unmistakable elements –

which is why it is so important that the shipyard’s longstanding experi-

ence and technological innovation in systems and production process-

es flow into these complex systems. These include, for example, diesel

engines, gas turbines or even water jets, as well as improved produc-

tion processes such as the newly designed laser welding. And then

there are the conventional welding and burning machines, which allow

for faster and more efficient coordination between the different con-

struction groups.

“The customer attains the best product that is technically con-

ceivable, at a relatively low cost,” is how Josten describes Blohm +

Voss’s sound business strategy.

Low-cost does not mean cheap, of course, but what are the lim-

its to the effort put into a project? There are none, at least not with the

yachts, Josten replies. The Lady Moura, 105 meters long and capa-

ble of 21 knots, is a technical miracle and a luxury means of transport

to boot.

The adventure-seeking poet Antoine de Saint-Exupéry would not

have been inspired by a walk through a modern shipyard. But his ad-

A dream cruiserfor the oceans

The “Eco” is a technological work of wonder as well as a luxury vessel.

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 33

vice – “If you want to build a ship, don’t rally the men to get wood, dis-

tribute responsibilities and divide tasks, but instead teach men the

yearning for the wide, endless sea” – is not really practical as a man-

agement strategy when top quality and expertise is demanded.

High-density steels and aluminum have long replaced wood as

the basic material for ship-building, while computers are so central to

design that a ship can be “walked on” even before the first part has

been produced, thanks to virtual reality 3-D views of the exterior and the

interior.

As an example, Josten gets his electronic miracle moving as

though moved by an invisible hand: A seemingly abstract wire frame

model gradually becomes a Mega Yacht on which you can take a stroll

through the atrium, inspect the kitchen, stride across the deck and lo-

cate the pool area. “The entire ship is pre-built by a computer,” he says,

obviously satisfied with this technological achievement.

LIGHT CONSTRUCTION EXTENDS INDIVIDUAL LEEWAY

The advantages for manufacturers and clients are obvious: Thanks to

such tools as electronic simulation, clients can make important deci-

sions early. This is important because changes are best avoided during

the construction phase. This reduces the project phase which, accord-

ing to Josten’s experience, can take one to two years longer. The pure

construction time of a 60-meter yacht, for example, can still amount to

two years or more.

Nonetheless, structures like the ones developed in line with the

idea of simultaneous engineering have altered production processes

and markedly reduced throughput times. Today, ships are usually

built in a modular construction process, no matter whether they are

later assembled using the cranes or right on the dock.

The shipyard is particularly proud that, thanks to extreme light-

weight construction of the ship’s body, the ships built at Blohm + Voss

have both a high payload and a high service speed. This provides in-

dividual leeway to the customer. While some customers wish to wan-

der the seas at a speed of 18 knots, or show off a graceful yacht in

the world’s most beautiful harbors, Josten can also tell of other cus-

tomers who order ships with which a destination can be reached at

very high speeds of more than 30 knots. This corresponds to a new

trend in cruise tourism: Younger people, in particular, want time to re-

ally see more of the ports of call, which means the ships must spend

less time traveling between them.

No matter whether a ship is being built for a navy, cruise lovers or

a yacht owner, some requirements do not vary: optimally high speeds,

the lowest possible fuel consumption and increased comfort through

noise reduction and low vibrations – all of these things are possible only

through extensive experience and the use of state-of-the-art materials

and production processes. At this highest level of the ship builder’s art,

yacht construction can profit substantially from experience gained in

marine shipbuilding and vice versa.

Unlike in the classic ship launchings which everyone has seen in

the old films, today’s newly built ships do not slide down an inclined way

into the water. When built on a modern dry dock, the entire ship is im-

mersed into the water with the dock – a slow process that is in no way

spectacular yet is nevertheless a moving moment, especially for the

workers who helped build the ship. And then the ship goes about its

work, anywhere on the seven seas.

THE NEW SHIP IMMERSES INTO THE WATER WITH THE DOCK

When – perhaps after many years – it sails back up the Elbe to its place

of birth for repair or maintenance, Blohm + Voss personnel will enjoy a

few moments musing about its creation. Then they will set about giving

this individual, floating miracle a new shine, and get it back out into ser-

vice as quickly as possible. 7

It takes a mouseclick to wander through this hall. The “Savarona,” 124 meters long, is the world’s biggest private yacht.

34 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

Future in motionIn fact, ThyssenKrupp Automotive could build its own car – almost

The demands on systemssuppliers are great. We needto offer car makersintelligent managementat every step, from thedevelopment through to themanufacturing of parts andcomponents.

When the 60th annual International Motor Show opens in Frank-

furt on Sept. 11 it will become clear once again why Thyssen-

Krupp Automotive is an indispensable partner for car and truck

makers, whether as a parts and components supplier, development

partner, or materials specialist.

Times have changed dramatically in the automobile industry,

where cars have become so complex, and customers so demanding,

that production without close collaboration between the car company –

the Original Engineering Manufacturer (OME), to use the industry term

– and outside suppliers is now unthinkable. It is in the logic of this

process that the outside partner no longer delivers just individual parts,

but thinks in terms of entire modules and systems within the vehicle.

This means working in new areas of expertise and new geo-

graphical areas, and ThyssenKrupp Automotive has responded: Our

130 production facilities in 17 countries assure not only that we take an

international approach but that we are always close by to respond to theBy Benedikt Breith | Illustrations Andreas Weishaupt

35

For modern car companies,the support and cooperationof outside suppliers is essential. No modern vehiclecan be built without flexibilityfrom everyone involved in the entire design and manufacturing process.

ThyssenKrupp Automotiveworks closely with everymajor car maker in the world.Our components can be foundin more than 60 new modelsthat are coming onto the market in 2003.

needs of our customers. The ThyssenKrupp Automotive slogan “Future

in Motion” implies the question, “Can we design the future?” Anyone

who replies “yes, with the right know-how,” must be prepared to be

held to that answer, which logically leads to the question of whether

ThyssenKrupp Automotive could at some point develop its own cars.

We should proceed carefully, step by step, to that answer. Perhaps we

could start with the 38,425 ThyssenKrupp Automotive employees

world-wide, ask each of them exactly what he or she does, and then as-

semble their responses as though each was a piece of one huge puz-

zle? Hardly: The answer to this question can only come with a system-

atic approach.

Since the challenges are systematic, so is the structuring of the

segments that ThyssenKrupp Automotive has divided its work into,

under the three separate business units of Chassis, Body and Power-

train. A quick look at our website, www.thyssenkrupp-automotive.com,

will give you a good look into our automotive world. The first time you

see a car it is from the outside, so why not start your virtual tour by

clicking on Body, under the Capabilities list on the home page?

The text sums up very well this part of our work: “Our systems ac-

tivities in the Body unit include intelligent BIW (Body-in-White) produc-

tion management, body design, virtual simulation of production equip-

ment concepts, prototypes, tooling, BIW fixtures as well as body part

production.”

THE CAR TAKES SHAPE

It sounds abstract, but the diagram of the blue car portrayed here

shows how the vehicle is starting to take shape through “body work”

alone: There is a roof, doors, complete floor panel, hood, side intru-

sion beams and fender. And that’s not all; there is also the body

frame, B-pillars, the wing and the trunk lid. And even that is not an ex-

haustive list. ThyssenKrupp Automotive’s people remain at the fore-

front of technology in the sector. Cooperation with all the major car

36

makers around the world means that in 2003 alone our products are

found in more than 60 new models. And that makes a closer look be-

hind the scenes at the IAA – to use the German acronym for the Inter-

national Motor Show – well worthwhile.

CONTINUOUS IMPROVEMENT IS OUR CONSTANT CHALLENGE

But getting back to our virtual tour of the ThyssenKrupp Automotive

Web site, what do we find when we click for the Chassis unit? Quite a

lot, as the site explains: “Our Chassis unit develops and supplies chas-

sis systems such as complete ready-to-install axles” for both the front

and rear ends and “cab suspension systems for leading European truck

manufacturers.” There’s more, too.

As we can see in this section, the car that is shown is yellow but

no less detailed, since our 15,600 Chassis people around the world

also make complete air suspension systems, stabilizers, control arms,

brake discs and drums, full frames, knuckles and cross members. The

term “systems partner” could not be more apt, because we produce

not only individual parts but complete, ready-to-install systems.

The amount of change in just a few years has been great, mean-

ing more competitive pressures on everyone to produce lighter cars that

consume less fuel and drive cleaner and yet are safer, last longer, and

drive more comfortably. The effort to meet the demands of the market-

place and regulators sets increasingly greater emphasis on flexibility,

beginning with design and assembly ideas and ranging through mate-

rials issues – will it be steel, magnesium, aluminum or plastic?

Creativity does not end with the conception of the car, of course,

but includes the challenges of producing it, and there is no such thing

as a good engineer who does not also have plenty of imagination: It is

impossible to overcome the laws of physics, but the engineer continu-

ally explores new ways to work to the maximum within them. And, at the

ThyssenKrupp Automotive’sthree business units – Chassis,Body and Powertrain – arein motion around the world.Altogether, we have more than120 production locations in 17 different countries.

Outside suppliersare now expected to delivermuch more than parts. Today, car makers want complete, ready-to-install systems.

Technical progress shows the way

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 37

same time, always sees the car the way the driver does. That, ulti-

mately, is the way to win new customers and keep existing ones happy,

a goal shared by the 13,600 employees of our Powertrain unit working

around the world. The word Powertrain is a term as evocative to the lay

person as to the engineer, but our website is to the point: “The Power-

train unit combines our capabilities in the fields of drivetrain and steer-

ing.“ We supply complete steering columns and steering systems,

electronic, electric or mechanical, and as the world-wide leader in

crankshafts we deliver to our customers both forged and cast crank-

shafts, as basic parts or in ready-to-install units, for all types of en-

gines. We are also the world leader in assembled camshafts. Cylinder

head systems and covers, conrods, transmission cases and gear com-

ponents round out our Powertrain portfolio.

Our virtual tour is nearing an end, and only a visitor can properly

say whether we are any closer to building a complete automobile. And

yet it is something of a trick question, for the real answer must be that

even if a parts and components supplier could, there would be no point:

The OEM and the supplier live in symbiosis, each with its own distinct

advantages, the car company as the creator of the marque and the

supplier as the system partner who can take over responsibility for pro-

ducing entire sections of the vehicle. This becomes abundantly clear at

the international car shows.

JOINT APPEARANCE AS A SIGN OF THE TIMES

It was a poet who discovered years ago the concept of slowness as a

secret of success, so as not to be surprised by the wheel of time, turn-

ing ever faster. OEMs and their suppliers live increasingly from speed,

but even more from partnership.

Partnership is the real discovery they have made to assure that

they are not overtaken by the wheel of time. 7

Giving lots of attentionto even the smallest detailis the key to successfor 38,425 employeesof ThyssenKrupp Automotivearound the world.

Experts in the underworldMobile man goes underground. To make sure that his feet stay dry, plastic welders from Schmutz GmbH insulate the tunnels with special foil

By Alexander SchneiderPhoto Torben Reitzel

40 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

The romantically minded might complain, but just about everyone else is thrilled

with the new ICE high-speed train that now takes travelers from Frankfurt to

Cologne in just 70 minutes. That passengers no longer see the romantic cas-

tles of the old Rhine River route, but rather long stretches of tunnel walls, may strike

some as the dark side of 21st century travel. But tunnels are essential to high-speed

rail, because they allow top speeds without noise disturbance to nearby residents in

heavily populated areas – two key goals of traffic planners. It is no wonder, then, that

the Europeans are busy blasting and drilling: the Gotthard and Lötschberg tunnels are

only the most spectacular examples of a mobile society’s increasing intrusions into

the underworld.

Per König specializes in this route to the depth of mountains or into the earth.

As blasts still reverberate through the stone and low loaders transport away rubble,

his team at the tunnel entrance is often already busy with its precision work. The men

from Schmutz GmbH, a company in the ThyssenKrupp Group based in Weil am Rhein,

a German town along the Rhine near the Swiss border, ensure that tunnels stay dry,

obviously an essential precondition to the successful building and operation of a tun-

nel. And as any child who has ever dug a hole on the beach can tell you, the deeper

you dig, the wetter the soil tends to get.

“Back in the 1960’s, people still believed that reinforced concrete would resist

dampness, but that soon proved to be an illusion,” explains tunnel expert König.

“Many old tunnels are having to be renewed at great expense because water has pen-

etrated the concrete.”

This underground reality means that the concrete tubes or shafts that are chan-

neling rail traffic are being given a sort of plastic canopy that serves as a water-resis-

tant cladding, which is the specialty of König and his team: They upgrade tunnels with

an “umbrella,” as they call it, for the dampness can also arise from below on many

construction sites – the only thing that will help then is insulation that completely sur-

rounds the construction.

FUN UNDERGROUND: COPENHAGEN’S “MINI-METRO”

Things got particularly wet in the course of a recent project, the construction of a new

subway in Copenhagen. The “Mini Metro,” a small, driverless system, has been run-

ning underneath the Danish capital since last October, the first opportunity for the

city’s 600,000 inhabitants and its many visitors to enjoy the convenience of under-

ground transportation in the Danish capital.

They will, of course, barely notice the efforts and expense needed to provide

them with this practical and comfortable form of transportation; the subway runs

through tunnels as much as 30 meters (98 feet) below sea level, which must with-

stand water pressure of up to three bar from all sides.

Close inspection: the foils are checked before the molding begins – here in the Burgholz tunnel as much as on the major construction site of the Copenhagen Metro (see photo page 38-39).

The art of heating plastic

“During construction, water often seeped into the tunnels

and caverns, which had to be pumped out, because the

ground water below Copenhagen reacts to the tides,”

König explains. “Sometimes it came, sometimes it did-

n’t. The first shaft was flooded three times. At times, we

had to work with a raft there.”

As many as 20 employees from Schmutz GmbH’s

“tunnel service” unit insulated three stops and 14 emer-

gency shafts on the Mini-Metro site between 1999 and

2002. They initially installed a so-called geo textile layer

on the walls over a base of sprayed concrete. Like a tight

carpet, geo textile protects the real insulation, a plastic

foil with a thickness of just three millimeters (a tenth of

an inch) and made out of flexible polyolefins. Unlike PVC,

it contains no softeners and is expected to last at least

100 years.

The biggest challenge – and part of the special

know-how of the insulation specialists from Weil am

Rhein – is fixing, or “hanging,” these plastic strips and

sealing them together without any holes or tears. The foil

is attached to plastic plates that are shot onto the wall at

regular intervals with a type of pistol, and the foil is then

“welded” onto them with hot air. The right temperature is

essential here, since excessive heat can easily burn

holes in the sensitive plastic. Once the strips, which are

roughly 2.5 meters across, are attached, the plastic

welders have to link them together. That’s when the con-

crete can be molded into place.

“Welding plastic correctly takes, above all, a lot of

experience,” says König. He definitely has this experi-

ence: This Vienna native has worked with the technology

for 25 years, having studied mechanical engineering and

welding technology. One day a friend who had to weld

plastic strips asked him for help, and König developed a

machine that solved the problem by using hot air. Since

then, plastic welding has kept him busy. The engineer

and welding technology expert has now overseen the in-

sulation of some 3.5 million square meters (almost 38

million square feet) of tunnel walls, drinking water stor-

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 41

them together with a double seam. After only a few min-

utes, the two foils have been welded together, and the

next stretch is tackled.

Meanwhile, plastic welder Johannes Koch checks

whether the welds are watertight by pumping com-

pressed air into a narrow control canal located between

the two welds. Koch can tell by the pressure whether a

hole has been made during the welding process. Almost

always, he finds the welders have done their job well –

these specialists not only have to work with great skill, but

do so in workplaces that change constantly, under often

difficult conditions, not least the limited lighting.

Because modern construction methods mean more

and more companies can be working simultaneously, “it

is extremely important to work closely and cleanly to-

gether,” says König, casting a critical eye toward two

workers from another company who are welding scaf-

folding together very close to the freshly sealed insulation

sheets. “Sometimes on a construction site you have to

assert yourself,” he adds.

But here in Burgholz everything goes smoothly for

the Schmutz team, leaving König feeling very relaxed as he

drives off to the next job site. He always has to be on hand,

he explains, “because things often happen that you didn’t

expect,” problems that cannot be solved at his desk but

only in consultation with his staff and others on the scene.

In Copenhagen, for example, where consultations

on how to keep the insurgent water out were necessary

more than once. “In the end, we sealed more area than

was originally forecast,” the tunnel specialist adds, “be-

cause in the rail tunnel itself the operator opted for a

cheaper form of construction than was used in the shafts

and the stations. Water forced its way into the tunnels,

and in some spots the only thing was for us to do some

additional sealing.”

An unforeseen problem, successfully overcome: Out

of experiences like these comes a reputation that ensures

the tunnel sealers of Schmutz GmbH will be busy at under-

ground work sites across Europe well into the future. 7

Well-tempered: If the welding temperature is too hot, the insulation

strips can easily be damaged. If everything goes smoothly, the zip principle applies: one

pull and it’s done.

age tanks and basins on building sites around the world. Since so much expertise

is needed in tunnel insulation, and no “theory of plastic welding” exists, there has

been relatively little competition for contracts like the one in Copenhagen. There,

Schmutz GmbH was able to not only offer the construction consortium the insulation

of the emergency shafts, with an average vertical depth of 30 meters, but had a spe-

cial trick in its hat: a repair technology that provides for simple and low-cost repair

of foil damage when the subway is already completed and in operation, in other

words when the insulation foil is hidden behind concrete walls with a thickness of

several meters.

A JOB FOR NOMADS: HERE TODAY AND THERE TOMORROW

“The high water pressure in Copenhagen can press the foil into cavities which can

emerge even when the best concrete is used – and then, of course, the foil may tear,”

says König. “That’s why we’ve used our proprietary repair system there.”

What this involved was installing injection channels right into the insulation and

running through the reinforced concrete. An additional layer of plastic is installed be-

tween the foil and the concrete, with knobs to ensure there is a gap between the dif-

ferent surfaces. When the subway is in operation, potential water leakage in the shafts

and caverns is monitored constantly, and if damage is detected “insulation gel” is in-

jected through tubes behind the concrete layer, which reacts with water to seal the

tear. Since water-tight joints separate the individual insulation stretches every seven

meters (23 feet), damage can be contained very precisely.

Per König says every construction site is “an adventure,” but he does have a

dream building site: “If we got the contract for the planned Brenner basic tunnel – that

would be something special: about 50 kilometers (31 miles) through the Alps.”

Road tunnels like the two-kilometer one at Burgholz, near Wuppertal in Ger-

many’s Rhine-Ruhr region, also require all the skills of König’s team: All of them are

building site nomads who work at a place for 10 days, spend a short time at home,

and then usually travel to an entirely different building site. In the case of the Burgholz

tunnel, the “umbrella protection” sufficed for most of the length – meaning that no in-

sulation from below was required. The all-round insulation is used only at two places

in the middle of the tunnel, where there is an underground stream.

But the blast masters have not gotten that far yet. And only 10 meters of the foil,

which is from the outside, has been attached at the tunnel entrance, where the weld-

ing is just starting.

Since everything has been prepared perfectly, it looks rather simple: two plas-

tics welders stand on a scaffolding, which reaches almost to the ceiling of the rough-

ly 10-meter-high tunnel. While one holds approximately 10 centimeters (4 inches) of

overlapping material together, his colleague follows with a small machine that welds

Photos Wolfgang K

öller

ThyssenKrupp Nirosta supplies particularly fine steel to Swiss watchmaker Rolex

A stainless reputation

By Alexander Schneider | Photos Michael Wissing

Precision strip means rolling steel to a thickness of 0.5 millimeters and then cutting it into 3-millimeter strips. Not even the tiniest scratch must be found on 1,000-meter-long steel strips.

From exciting car racesto extreme mountain hikes – the watch with the crown is always part of it. And thisincludes the special steel made at the Nirosta plant in Dahlerbrück.

48 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

Time marches on, but a Rolex runs and runs and keeps on running.

Attached to their owner’s wrists, Rolex watches are taken to

stormy summits, across turbulent seas and, yes, through the rig-

ors of everyday life, the hands moving reliably every second, every

minute, hour by hour, day by day, year in and year out. Precision work

and high-quality materials – including the refined steel of a ThyssenKrupp

subsidiary – are the foundations for the world-wide renown enjoyed by

this luxury brand. Even forgeries serve to highlight the special status of

the Rolex, rather than threaten it.

Among the legendary models is the Rolex Daytona, a simple steel

chronograph that first came on the market in 1976. You can no longer

walk into a shop and buy a steel Daytona, for the watch has attained

cult status and anyone wishing to make a Daytona their own will have

to go on a waiting list for several years or bid at an e-bay auction, where

prices start at EUR 9,500.

A watch you have to wait for – it is hard to imagine a more ironic

product presentation. But it is no coincidence that the product in ques-

tion is the Daytona, for this watch has always reflected and still reflects

the fascination associated with excitement – notably the speed and risk

of automobile racing. One of the two top car races in the United States

takes place every February in Daytona Beach on Florida’s east coast,

and has a distinguished tradition: As long ago as the early 20th centu-

ry the “birthplace of speed” – the proud name given to the coastal re-

sort – is where the first records were attempted, and as early as 1910

car racing pioneers were speeding across the sand at a very swift 210

kilometers per hour (127 mph).

The Daytona 500 is sponsored by Rolex, among other firms, and

the race befits a brand that, thanks to quality and some skillful market-

ing, has become a myth in its own right.

Marketing success started with Mercedes Gleitze. In October

1927, the shorthand typist from London swam to Dover from Cap Gris

Nez, taking 15 hours and 15 minutes for the 33 kilometers across the

English Channel, a tremendous accomplishment at a time when ex-

treme athletic achievements were still far from common, especially for

women. For one of Gleitze’s contemporaries, however, another fact

about the swim was even more important – so much so that he booked

a full-page ad on the front page of London’s Daily Mail newspaper on

Nov. 24, 1927 for 1,600 pounds sterling, a very large sum at the time.

The ad text read, “the wonder watch that defies the elements.”

The watch on Gleitze’s wrist, an “Oyster,” had been unaffected by the

Channel’s salt water and was running just as precisely after the swim

as before it.

FROM MOUNTAIN PEAKS TO THE DEEPEST SEAS

The advertiser was Hans Wilsdorf, and with the construction of the

“wonder watch,” Wilsdorf, a native of Germany’s Franconia region, had

reached a key goal: manufacturing a chronograph that would prove its

quality in extreme situations. Wilsdorf had already managed a clock-

maker in London since 1905, which he renamed “Rolex” in 1908, but

only with his bold 1927 marketing initiative did he make his big break-

through. In the meantime, the company had relocated to Geneva, al-

though its clockworks had always been assembled by Swiss specialists.

Wilsdorf’s watches were supposed to represent the extraordinary,

using state-of-the-art technology to measure time with complete relia-

bility and total precision. And indeed they did: In 1953, when Sir Ed-

mund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay climbed Mount Everest, they each had

an “Explorer I” on their wrists, and, in 1960, Jacques Picard dived with

a custom-designed Rolex Oyster attached to the outside of his sub-

mersible, the Trieste, to the bottom of the Mariana Trench in the Pacific

Ocean. There, at some 11,000 meters (36,000 feet), the deepest point

in the world’s oceans, the watch withstood pressure of more than one

ton per square centimeter. The message: No matter where people go,

a Rolex can take it. To keep honoring this promise, however, the watch-

maker has had to make continuous advances in technology and mate-

The material fitsthe Rolex myth

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 49

rial – in the early 1980s, for example, when it was learned that the

watches’ steel parts did not withstand corrosion as well as the Swiss

perfectionists envisioned; on tropical diving trips, conventional chrom-

ium-nickel steels, the combination used by most watchmakers to this

day, may corrode, damaging the watch and causing allergies.

This is why Rolex turned to Thyssen Edelstahlwerke, which today

is known as ThyssenKrupp Nirosta, a subsidiary of ThyssenKrupp Steel

AG. The Swiss watchmakers asked the steel specialist for a steel that

was not only exceedingly corrosion-resistant, but also boasted a par-

ticularly pure surface and could be easily formed. In addition, it could

not be magnetic, because mechanical watches are very sensitive to

magnetism.

The specialists in the ThyssenKrupp Nirosta precision strip plant

in Dahlerbrück, east of Düsseldorf, were able to come up with a mate-

rial consisting of chromium-nickel molybdenum steel that fulfilled the

stipulated requirements exactly. The rust-free material had originally

been developed for medical implants, and today Rolex can choose be-

tween three possible materials because ThyssenKrupp Nirosta contin-

ues to develop its products in close cooperation with the watchmaker.

“It may not be obvious at the first glance, but it’s our most refined

product,” says Dr. Ingo Schael, pointing to a slim roll of steel, so-called

precision strip. “Otherwise, Rolex uses mainly gold and platinum for its

watches, often in combination with rust-free steel,” adds Schael. “This

means our steel is in good company.”

Schael has shared responsibility for technical customer service

and quality at the plant with Rolf Laban, who has managed the joint ma-

terials development with Rolex from the very beginning. Now he is

passing on his experience to his designated successor, Schael. “Natu-

rally,” Laban says, “it is very important that we continue to look after

this demanding product as well as we have done in the past.”

Even the pre-product is the result of special efforts: Finished steel

ingots are remelted in the electro-slag remelting process to attain an

even higher degree of purity – an expensive step but one that is imper-

ative for Rolex. Since the Swiss watchmakers polish the steel until it

shines, they would notice even the smallest tarnish on the surface.

As relatively rough steel strip, the steel is sent to the plant in Dahler-

brück, where it is rolled to precision strip and cut. A glance at the rolling

process shows how precision strip is made: two workers observe up to

eight monitors via which they steer the 20 rollers that reduce the strip to

exactly the right thickness; even small deviations are monitored via X-ray.

NOT EVEN THE TINIEST SCRATCH ON 1,000 METERS OF STEEL

In the next step, the strips are cut to the desired width. Hundreds of

scissor knives are available for this purpose, since each cutting process

has different requirements. “For example, we supply strips of only 7.1

millimeters (0.28 inches) width to Rolex,” Schael explains. “We could

even go as low as three millimeters. Sometimes colleagues from other

plants can hardly believe with how much precision we work with our

steel here.”

Not only precise, but clean, too: During the cutting process, the

strips run through white felt, which removes stains from the production

process which cannot be seen with the human eye. When the workers

insert a strip for Rolex, they always take fresh felt – ensuring the highest

possible level of purity for the demanding customer from Lake Geneva.

The rolls of up to 1,000-meters (3,280 feet) in which ThyssenKrupp

Nirosta delivers 20 to 30 tons of precision strip to Rolex each year must

not show even the smallest scratch.

The quality of the steel, of course, can be seen not only from the

spotless surface, or when a Rolex owner swims the English Channel or

ascends Mount Everest. “If you go jogging with a watch with a normal

stainless steel strap, the sweat on your skin reacts with the metal –

meaning that you end up with a black ring on your arm,” Schael points

out. “That never happens to me with a Rolex – thanks not least to our

steel.” 7

It’s not just any steel:Precision strip from Dahlerbrückmeets the high standards set bya watchmaking company thatmakes no compromises. Precisionin the finished product requiresno less from the materials.

Phot

os K

arst

en E

nder

lein

An interview with Prof. Dr. Ekkehard D. Schulz, Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG

50 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

You recently used the term ’pillarization syndrome,’ and said that as a

result of it nothing was moving in Germany and the country was suffer-

ing. What did you mean by this syndrome?

There are three pillars, by which I mean the three things that carry this

land: government, the economy and science. They stand beside each

other but are unconnected, which has led to weakness that we must over-

come. Look at the careers of top leaders in each of the three. Since most

of them are vertical within one of the pillars, there is a lack in the exchange

of knowledge and experience between the three, which has led to a cer-

tain paralysis. There is too little experience going across all three areas.

In our company we work differently: A regular, institutionalized job rot-

ation of our employees through the different business units both inland

and abroad is very positive in terms of their personal development.

There is a consensus in the country over this process you described as

pillarization. Is this consensus leading Germany into a dead end?

It is a fact that our republic is governed under principles, introduced 50

years ago after two lost world wars, which hold that power in our coun-

try would be limited through decentralized structures. This was ab-

solutely legitimate at the time. Today, however, a new framework is nec-

essary because we are working under different parameters. The Cold

War is over, we have to assert ourselves in a globalized world, and we

live in the middle of an expanded Europe. We urgently need a reform at

the top and in the different parts.

Saying that, you are questioning the basic principles of our established

political structures. Are you a system changer who wants to upset the

current balance of power?

I’m certainly not a system changer, but I can see one thing, namely

that the balance of power no longer exists in the same way it did. The

recent strike by IG Metall in the new eastern German states, to cite one

thing, showed that with a minimum of effort a strike strategy could be

decided that could paralyze entire sectors of the economy. There isn’t

even a legal framework governing this sort of action, which is decided

solely on the basis of case law. And the courts have been deciding

against companies for years. The same goes for lockouts: We no

longer have a balance of power or, if I may put it this way, no equality

in the weapons we have at our disposal. To create this is the responsi-

bility of the lawmakers.

Are they avoiding the issue?

That is no surprise if you consider the proportion that union members

represent in the German parliament – almost every second member of

parliament belongs to a labor union. Do you think they will pass laws that

go against their own unions? That’s why the system is going in circles,

and why there’s nothing to shake the country out of its complacency.

Former German President Roman Herzog has argued that in Germany

we don’t have a knowledge problem but an implementation problem.

“We have to bringmovement into thinking”

Photos Marc Darchinger

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 51

As the head of one of the biggest technology groups in the coun-

try, do you share this opinion?

Herzog is absolutely right. Figuratively speaking, all our knowl-

edge is on the table, but no one is implementing the things I have

been talking about in terms of encrusted structures. The state

does not feel bound to save in order to use these resources for the

future – that is to say for research, development and education.

So the state must begin to reduce expenditures on its administra-

tion. For example, do we need 16 federal states? I think not. The

federal structure also needs to be questioned, because if the state

wants to play an active role in the area of technology and science

it will need the financial wherewithal to do so.

When it comes to technology, the Germans are not among the

most welcoming. Is that a typical German mentality, to use tech-

nology but to not want to have any deep involvement with it, and

not to choose it as a career?

This phobia about technology that you describe is a result, in my

opinion, of the citizens’ initiatives and the Greens. The living stan-

dard in the country is high, so many people ask, ‘What do we need

more technology for? We’re doing fine. Every new technology in-

volves risks, and why should we take risks?’ Consider the most

controversial technology, nuclear power. No one disputes that it

involves risks, and that if the worst possible accident occurred it

52 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

would be a catastrophe. But the worst-case scenario has been used for

political purposes: We have the highest security standards in Germany,

but are renouncing nuclear power and increasing use of fossil fuels even

though the experts are unanimous that emissions of carbon dioxide pre-

sent much more long-term danger for the environment than do the risks

involved with nuclear power. What’s more, this resort to fossil fuels is

showing no solidarity with the poorer countries, which in the end have no

choice but to build more nuclear power plants with lower security stan-

dards than ours. The environmental problem is a world problem.

Nuclear engineers complain that they are socially isolated because of

their profession. Do technical engineers in Germany have to apologize

for the kind of work they do?

I hope not, but the social prestige of German engineers is clearly far too

low. The consequences of this are disastrous. We can already see

them: The demand for engineers in Germany is twice as high as the

supply.

Are young people scared off from physics or mechanical engineering

because these subjects are too difficult?

I wouldn’t make such a blanket assertion. Certainly, not everyone has

the talent for natural sciences, since to become a scientist is a ques-

tion of mentality. By virtue of their approach, engineers are ready to

try new things – this distinguishes theirs from the common German

mentality of wanting to preserve something rather than make

changes and run risks. Right now we don’t need naysayers but peo-

ple who are ready to say, ‘innovation means investment, and I am

prepared to invest and thereby have new products to offer.’ The ma-

jority of people in the country think differently. They want the ameni-

ties of the technology society, but are not prepared to deal with the

consequences.

Is this lack of acceptance a result of the intransparency of technology,

which for outsiders seems ever more complicated?

That might be partly true, for technology is undoubtedly becoming ever

more complex, even for the experts. To this extent, acceptance of tech-

nology has suffered along with the degree of its complexity, which will

only increase as we go ahead with innovations. It is not the case that

we have no innovations, only that oftentimes we don’t apply them but

instead sell them to Japan or America or China. The Transrapid is the

best example of this: We spend billions on old technologies, but we

don’t want to invest in the technology of the future.

With technology becoming ever more complex, what kind of employees

do you need?

Complex technologies require people who think and work in complex

ways. There is no more sitting in the ivory tower. Teamwork is needed,

a thinking that goes beyond one’s own area and is constantly prepared

to exchange knowledge with others. This is the only way you can de-

termine what the customers want, what their expectations are, and in

which direction we have to go. Reaching this point requires a very

strong relationship of trust between managers and employees, which is

why the credibility of management is essential. Without it, the employ-

ees don’t follow their lead.

“We can’t stand still”

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 53

How do you go about recruiting young engineers?

For many years we have been cooperating with schools in the

Rhine-Ruhr region. We invite their students in and explain to them

what we do at ThyssenKrupp. My board colleagues and I try to have

direct contact with them. In addition, we work with a series of uni-

versities of applied technology, and with those that we think have

the best fit with us – the ones in Aachen, Berlin, Bochum, Darm-

stadt, Dresden, Dortmund, Hamburg and Karlsruhe – we have part-

nerships that have led to very concrete programs. When the stu-

dents are approaching the end of their studies we intensify our

contacts. We try to appeal to them, and ultimately to win them over

to our company.

So despite this complacency that you have diagnosed in our soci-

ety, you try to motivate your employees that only action and motion

can lead to success for a company?

We can’t stand still, because standing still means falling behind. So

we have to get people thinking about motion. I know that progress

does not come overnight, but according to Chinese wisdom even

the longest journey begins with a single step. In this regard I com-

pliment the current German government; its steps have been small,

but they are in the right direction. To me it’s clear that a small step

in the right direction is better than a big one in the wrong direction.

For the market, Germany is a very interesting country. That’s a mes-

sage we have to get out, both inside the country and abroad.

The interview was conducted by Heribert Klein.

54 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

When exactly he lived is not known. The only clue is that we know

he caused a commotion among Greece’s leading thinkers

around 460 B.C., about 80 years after Pythagoras – curiously,

because he maintained that there actually is no such thing as motion.

Even if his writings have disappeared, his most important thoughts

have remained alive, and have kept philosophers busy to this day.

Zeno’s particular strong point were his comparisons, so simple

that anyone could follow them and still not detect the flaw in his rea-

soning. For example, he stated that a flying arrow actually does not

move at all. The race between a tortoise and the runner Achilles, then

a synonym for speed, probably appeared even more provocative at the

time: Achilles can never catch up with the tortoise because the pursuer

must first reach the point from where the pursued started, so that the

slower must always hold a lead.

It took several decades and a thinker as enlightened as Aristotle

to uncover how Zeno’s ruse worked. Put simply, Zeno’s mistake was to

divide each moment of time into indivisible instants – which does not

work. Time, it was pointed out, is a continuum that flows through each

individual instant without coming to a halt.

The detailed refutation caused Aristotle some effort, just like most

other logicians and philosophers. Nonetheless, he illustrated the flaws

in Zeno’s reasoning in his piece, “Physics – lectures on nature,” al-

though he admitted openly that Zeno’s argumentation on movement

would cause anybody eager to solve it considerable headache. Put de-

risively, Zeno’s “trick” was to divide a distance and a period of time into

infinite instants. It is this connection that creates the paradox. In Book

VI, Chapter 9, Aristotle states, “And since everything that is in motion

is in motion in a period of time and changes from something to some-

thing, when its motion is comprised within a particular period of time it

is impossible that in that time that which is in motion should be over

against some particular thing primarily.” Being at rest, meanwhile,

means that something is in one and the same place as a whole and in

all its parts. According to Aristotle, Zeno’s mistake is the following: “He

says that if everything is either at rest or always in motion when it exists

The philosopher who brought movement to a stop

Zeno of Elena

The race between Achillesand the tortoise yieldsno result. The strong runnerAchilles will never catch upwith the tortoise, whose leadwill not get smallerat any point in time.

By Sebastian Groß | Illustrations Tobias Wandres

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

The philosopher Zenoremained a phenomenon.In his paradoxes he concludedthat there is no such thingas movement – a thesisthat has kept philosophersbusy to this day

over an equal part, then, since that which is traveling exists always in a

moment, the flying arrow is motionless. But this is false, for time is not

composed of moments (which are indivisible), just as no magnitude at

all is composed of indivisibles.”

It is the grand debate about such concepts as the present, the

past and the future, which has been and is still being conducted in con-

nection with motion. What is time, how long does the present last, and

what is movement? Such questions have occupied scientists to this

day. One thing that hasn’t changed is the idea that there are several

types of movement: in terms of a change of location, a quantitative and

qualitative change. Motion, says Aristotle, is the realization of the op-

portunity of that which is inherent in being, a type of transition, without

losing the unity.

Zeno, however, rejected this unity in his race between Achilles and

the tortoise. The idea that motion is a distance, with the present con-

sisting of different instants, and that the individual instants can be di-

vided infinitesimally with the inherently infinitesimal division taking

place in a limited moment of time, thus making this basically impossi-

ble – all of this sounds only too logical, but in reality is part of an atom-

istic view of the world. In reality, it is engaged in border-crossing be-

tween the different instants which is inherent in the concept of motion.

The whole as a continually existing unity emerges as it grows together,

overcoming the division into individual instants.

Zeno remained a phenomenon, and his paradoxical theses in-

spired such learned men as Galileo, Leibniz, Newton, Georg Cantor,

Gauss and Einstein. For his mind games shook up the fundaments of

philosophy and stirred up the question of what the present really is with-

in the framework of the continuum of movement.

EVERYTHING IS IN FLUX

More recently, brain researchers such as Munich’s Ernst Pöppel have

addressed the question, “Does reality have a duration?” What does

“now” mean, what does “simultaneous” mean, or, to use St. Augus-

tine’s words, “what is time?” St. Augustine answered this question by

saying that man knows exactly what time is when he is not asked about

it, but is at a loss when he is asked to respond to this question.

According to Pöppel’s research results, the human brain as man’s

central steering mechanism does have an idea of the present. He dis-

covered in various experiments that the brain works in units of time of

at most three seconds. This time interval is reproduced, in ever new in-

tervals of at most three seconds. This can be proven by the perception

of irritations, but also by human speech flow which is divided into time

In Zeno’s eyes, the flyingarrow actually did notmove. For the distance ithas to cover, and the timeat its availability are divided into infintesimalinstants. Only Aristotle wasable to unveil Zeno’s error.

Standing still,but as fast as a flying arrow

intervals through pauses – the intervals between pauses range be-

tween two and three seconds, and then the so-called indifference point

is reached.

Pöppel’s conclusion: “We can integrate information into a whole

up to a time limit of a few seconds. Beyond this limit, we do not have

the possibility of integrating information into an immediate and prede-

fined shape.”

So everything is in flux after all, as the pre-Socratic thinker Hera-

clitus maintained, in direct contradiction to Zeno. At least there is no

standstill – this much can be maintained without any doubt – but rather

continuous movement and mobility. Critics of our time argue that move-

ment is far too fast. A few years ago, Paul Virilio heralded the “racing

standstill,” while others have called for “deceleration.”

Movement means continuous development rather than erratic

forward motion. It guarantees that innovation and tradition are not

mutually exclusive, but are connected on the axis of the continuum of

time. Movement, thus defined, learns from the mistakes of the past

with the mental mobility to design the future in an innovative and con-

structive manner. If this is one of the truths that can be drawn from a

study of Zeno’s theses, we should be grateful to him for his dialectic

trains of thought. 7

Resting on pillars of steelThe world’s first water roller coaster is called Poseidon

By Heribert Klein | Photos Michael Wissing

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 61

The pylons of the Poseidonwater roller coaster reach up nearly 30 meters. Supported by a mountain of curved rails and steel supports, Poseidon is one of the majorattractions of the Europaparkamusement park in Rust, near Freiburg.

Free-fall rides

It’s right at the end that the tension really mounts at Europapark, Ger-

many’s biggest amusement park: Surely the boat we are traveling in

isn’t expected to fit through that narrow opening, way down there?

Fortunately, perhaps, there is not much time to think about it: From a

height of 22 meters (72 feet) we are soon plunging downward at a

speed of 70 kilometers (43 miles) per hour – that’s 20 meters per sec-

ond at an angle of 50 degrees, practically free-fall – and then into the

tunnel, a force of three Gs pushing against our bodies. We race over a

hump and think we must be about to burst free of gravity, until we feel

the boat skimming across the water.

A ROLLER COASTER RACING THROUGH THE WATER

“Pure action” is the motto that the creator uses for this patented, inno-

vative and original ride, a so-called “water coaster,” and it is impossible

to argue. To find out the secrets behind all this fun you have to travel to

the village of Waldkirch in the beautiful Elz Valley, just north of Freiburg

in southern Germany, where Heinrich Mack GmbH & Co. Karussell- und

Fahrzeugbau, Parkeinrichtungen – known to important amusement park

customers around the world as Mack Rides – is based.

62 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

The construction steels that ThyssenKrupp Stahl makesfor the Poseidon have to beextremely homogenous. Only thus can the Poseidon’s riders be guaranteed the level of safety they have a rightto expect.

The extensive company premises in a nondescript industrial area give

no hint of the fascination that is to be had at Europapark, which the

Mack family has run a short drive to the west, in Rust, since 1975.

Heavy steel sections and huge pylons can be seen, but it takes some

looking to realize what is now being built: a new type of combined

water-coaster for the famed Seaworld park in California. Look a bit clos-

er and you can see how much work goes into making sure that kids

(and adults, too!) get their thrills: A steel mountain that will eventually

soar 30 meters (100 feet) into the sky is taking shape amid a compli-

cated arrangement of curved rails and steel supports.

A MIXTURE OF BOAT AND ROLLER COASTER

ThyssenKrupp Steel is the producer of all these weight-bearing parts, for

which absolute reliability, leading to total safety, is essential. “The build-

ing steel that we use must have a very high degree of homogeneity,” ex-

plains Georg Behringer, the development director at Mack Rides. A quiet

man who explains the complex technical demands of roller-coaster con-

struction with great clarity, he has worked at Mack Rides for 20 years.

There is almost nothing here that can be considered “standard equip-

ment,” so a very large proportion of it must be hand-produced, he pointsShooting down on steel

64 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

The steel in the Poseidon has to bear a lot of pressure:pull, push, pull-pressure, torsion, curving and circulating.All without allowing the start of a crack.

out. The know-how required for a water-coaster is very extensive and de-

tailed. “The vessel itself is a combination of boat and roller-coaster car,”

Behringer explains. “From the point of view of the geometry, the wheel-

base and the wheel alignment must be able to follow the curves in the

tracks like an ordinary roller-coaster. Then it is braked by water, and so

this raises problems of keeping things water-tight.”

It is a lot to explain, but then it is a lot to keep in mind for the

engineer. There is a world of myth behind Europapark’s decision to

name its water-coaster creation “Poseidon,” but Behringer is less in-

terested in that side of it than in talking about the director of Germany’s

old Imperial Railroad, August Wöhler, whose “Wöhler curve” is a stan-

dard in dynamic materials testing and materials durability and sets an

important measure that must be met by steel used in a Mack Ride. For

the different types of vibrations that run through the materials – pull,

pull-pressure, push, torsion, curving, circulating – must be absorbed

while maintaining a certain tension in the steel and avoiding something

else that the Wöhler curve checks for – the start of a crack.

“With a coaster like the Poseidon there are highly dynamic de-

mands,” Behringer says, and for this reason the regulatory authorities

have set down extremely exceeding standards. Only certain types of

steel can be used, and their material content must be certified. And

steel from new alloys, with other standards? “We need the Wöhler

curves procedure; the authorities don’t allow anything else. The secu-

rity for the rider is the absolute priority,” Behringer says.

A MATERIAL THAT CAN RESIST VERY HIGH TENSION

Amusement parks around the world have competed for customers in

recent years by offering ever more exciting – namely bigger, longer

and faster – roller-coasters. The Silver Star in Europapark is an excel-

lent example of this trend: The first truly “high-speed” roller coaster in

Europe, it gives riders a feeling of weightlessness at various points in

their ride. And the Poseidon shows how new people-pleasing combi-

nations can be found.

It is difficult to imagine a more imaginative, exciting ride: It seems

you have barely been secured in your seat when the boat starts climb-

ing, higher and higher, and at the top you are treated to a wonderful

panorama reaching across the nearby Rhine River to the mountains of

France’s Alsace region. But there isn’t much time to take it in, for the

heart-stopping descent quickly begins, to the accompaniment of

screams and cries of enthusiasm. It is, come to think of it, one of the

Let the fun begin

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 65

few moments in modern society where people feel they can give free

rein to their most basic emotions.

“From the point of view of physics it’s not the speed that the rider

feels, but the acceleration, the changes in direction and speed,” says

Behringer. “People feel the force, not the absolute speed.”

New methods of steel production are an important reason that rid-

ing a roller-coaster is more comfortable than ever, even if the speeds

are higher. “We can form the curve in the steel differently. The calcula-

tions process has also contributed,” adds Behringer. He cites the

stretch-measuring tape that is fixed to a part for resistance and allows

the “stretching” in the steel to be precisely measured, for the stretching

runs linearly with the tension in the steel. Here there are also security

concerns: An S 235 steel has a stretch limit of 235 Newtons per square

millimeter under tension. In the TÜV technical standard in use in Ger-

many a maximum tension of 27 is allowed, although the material can

withstand 10 times as much.

The Poseidon is up to being “driven” very hard, and a look inside

the plant where the steel for it was processed shows why: Long, seam-

less milled round pipes formed cold, under extremely high pressure,

look almost aesthetic, even before they are painted. Or the welded

ones, which look extremely tidy. “The seam must be, qualitatively, ab-

solutely flawless,” Behringer explains. “The welder has the challenge

here of welding with small seams; he can do it only for a very short

period and then must stop – it is a real art that is almost impossible

to achieve with machines.”

AN ILLUSION THAT RESTS ON PRECISE CALCULATIONS

As much as possible of the Poseidon being sent to Seaworld will be built

in Waldkirch. The massive support masts, the curved piping, the rails –

you can already get a rough idea of the contour of what will later stand

in California, with all that is needed now being a designer and an archi-

tect. They will give the matter-of-fact steel the touch of illusion, a theme

that tells a story and lets the rider go back in imagination to, say, the

time of Greek myths.

That their boat is navigating around a highly complex steel con-

struction is something that most of the riders at Europapark hardly stop

to consider. They are interested in one thing above all: The wild sensa-

tion at the end and the gigantic splash that will send up a big wall of

water (but hopefully won’t get them wet) as they ponder the world, both

mythical and modern, of Poseidon. 7

Success that was “built on ruins”Meet Alfred Krupp, inventor of the seamless train wheel 150 years ago

By Heribert Klein | Photos Historisches Archiv Krupp

68

The mighty, crashing sound of the massive steam hammer makes

a particularly powerful impression. “It’s 140 centner drop weight

– can you imagine the unbelievable force behind that?” the owner

of the cast steel factory that bears the name of his father, Friedrich

Krupp, asks enthusiastically. The noise does not seem to bother him.

At least we don’t think it did, knowing what we know about Alfred

Krupp. So let’s take our knowledge of him and imagine a trip back in

time, to the city of Essen, to visit one of the most important industrial-

ists of the mid- to late 19th century. It might have gone like this …

There he is, standing in the middle of his office, inside the facto-

ry that he calls, according to the convention of his time, his “establish-

ment.” The reception room is elegant, and includes busts of the Ger-

man royal family, a fireplace, parquet floor, and large albums that show

the products of the Krupp factory. It is easy to forget that the bustling

Mechanical Workshop No.1 is right next door.

The workshop is, if you will, Alfred Krupp’s realm. Thought out by

him, committed to paper in plans of his own, a sort of lifetime achieve-

ment already now. He has just returned from his usual morning ride,

looking like an elegant gentleman from the country with his large

stature, full, graying beard, and short-cut hair sitting atop a high fore-

head. He is dressed in a green tailcoat (the so-called Chasse tailcoat),

riding boots and gray pants, and is anything other than a bohemian; a

life, not always happy, has left too much of a mark on him. As he recalls

it, it was often a fight for survival.

“We went through very hard times,” he remembers. “No compar-

ison to today, in the year 1859. Altogether 1,410 people have worked

for me. When I think back, I was only 14 years old when my father died,

much too soon. He put almost his entire fortune into the production of

forgeable cast steel. I continued the experiments, with two workers;

often enough we were unable to make ends meet. 1848 was the worst

year. I had to lay off workers again, 74 were then left, with a turnover of

approximately 52,000 taler. I was close to the end.”

NOT A FRIEND OF SLOPPINESS

The piercing, keen-looking eyes will stay in a visitor’s mind. Nothing

seems to escape them. Would the visitor like to see his forge and

rolling mill as well as the turning and drilling workshop? Everything ex-

cept the melting building with the ovens – he has had very bad expe-

riences with that, he explains. Workers, that were – he can’t find an-

other word – “infiltrated” by his competitors have spied on his

inventions, only to leave after a short while and sell his hard-earned

secrets. Since then he has been very cautious, not seeking publicity

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 69

“We have livedthrough tough times”

On March 21, 1853, Alfred Krupp was awarded a patent by the Royal Prussian State Government for “a process to manufacture wheel fittings (tires) out of cast steel without welding.” The rings were produced in ever larger batches.

and seldom making an exception that would allow an outsider too

close a look. “It was in 1852,” Krupp continues, referring to another

unfortunate experience with publicity. “Several newspapers were

speculating that I wasn’t the sole owner of my factory. In the Essen

newspaper and in the Ruhr newspaper I then had printed, of course at

my expense: ’several papers have included reports about my estab-

lishment, that, although well intended, have all been more or less so

full of substantial inaccuracies that I see myself forced to this public

statement.’ I specifically signed with Alfred Krupp, owner of the cast

steel factory Firma Friedrich Krupp. Mr. Sölling was a silent partner for

certain years, but he wasn’t a co-owner!”

To have to fight your way through life, at least at crucial periods,

leaves its mark. Even if he doesn’t wander through his workshops as

much as he used to, Krupp still hasn’t lost his eye for detail, and he was

never fond of slovenliness. “Disgraceful work” he still calls it, when for

example a piston rod shows one and a half inches difference in the

thickness of the grabs and a quarter of an inch in the thickness of the

rods. “Lousy work” he will snap, because for products like this he will

have to give his clients a discount.

He definitely has his principles, though not everyone may like

what he has learned through experience: a factory can only be run with

consistency and firmness. Nobody can just come and go whenever he

pleases, he observes. Especially in times as in the past years, when one

had to fight for orders. Who doesn’t stick to the rules has to pay a fine.

Not to him personally, but into a cash pool “for the support of honest

sick people, who are not entitled to the health fund or of those people

that have been struck by misfortune.”

THERE IS A MUTUAL SENSE OF LOYALTY

A case of pure capitalism, then, as it is dominant in Great Britain? Krupp

isn’t an ideologist; politics interests him only marginally, and he directs

the conversation to the mutual sense of loyalty between owner and

worker. “In 1848, when the revolution broke out, I gathered my workers

around me and demanded that they not participate in the revolution.”

Otherwise he would have to conclude that they were against him, but if

they were on his side he would do his best to secure their needs. The

theorizers of the revolution, people like Karl Marx and Ludwig Feuer-

bach, don’t mean anything to him. He only speaks out on one of them,

of course with all of the contempt that he is capable of, and his tone

gets bitter and rather aggressive: “This so-called famous Ferdinand

Lasalle has brought the poison of undue desire to the people. He who

himself is unsound and excessive misused his ability to seduce the

working class and make them unhappy, and discontent. But luxury is

the source of the discontent and the misfortune of the workers. One can

see the finery, the children’s laced boots and everybody’s clothing.

Hats, flowers, fur, veils, umbrellas and parasols are already being used

by miners. In my time we worked in wooden shoes and the worker did-

n’t know any type of umbrella; a smock at the most.”

RINGS AS A SYMBOL OF LUCK

Painful memories become easier to bear over time, a poet would have

written. But Krupp wasn’t a poet; as a pragmatic man, as a technician

and inventor, everyday life was closer to him. He hasn’t forgotten any-

thing from his past, in which his own father played an important role,

though he was only 38 when he died in 1826. He was the head of the

“Good Hope” metallurgical plant that his prosperous grandmother had

accepted to settle a debt and later sold for 36,000 reichstaler.

“My father,” says Alfred Krupp, “whose grandmother had a

wholesaling business with other things, colonial goods, linen and the

like, had the idea to make cast steel like Huntsman in England. He never

was a worker, but in his youth, like me and my brother Hermann, he en-

joyed being at the fire and the melting furnace.” What was the differ-

ence between the two of them in the end, despite all of the similarities?

“He didn’t have any luck, he lost his vast fortune in the end. I could only

build on ruins, and in the end had more luck.”

It is the ring that symbolizes his luck. Rings of luck – yes, that’s

what they were, embodied in what he thinks is still his most important

invention, the seamless forged and rolled railway wheel, whose lack of

a seam meant it was without a predetermined breaking point. The

patent was filed in 1852. Let us leave out the importance of the can-

nons in this context: along with its springs and axis the seamlessly

manufactured railway wheel (also called “bandages” or “tires”) was to

substantially contribute to the revival of Krupp’s company. That he had

managed this “coup” is still an obvious source of pride, and he re-

counts how the Royal Prussian government gave him the patent on

March 21, 1853 “on a method to manufacture wheel fittings (tires) out

of cast steel without welding.” And the patent was valid not only in Ger-

many but in Great Britain, France, Belgium, Austria and in the United

States. In fact, he adds, “unchallenged everywhere.”

Krupp quickly dismisses the attempts of the Messrs. Mayer &

Kühne in nearby Bochum, who about the time of the 1852 patent ar-

gued, as he puts it, “that my invention was missing the characteristic

novelty and singularity.” The ministry saw through that right away, he

continues. “Convince yourself, take a look at my railway wheels, which

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 71

“The machine for the tireswent wonderfully”

Alfred Krupp was one of those inventers who noted down and drew what they had discovered. His people, he said, were as proud of his inventions as he himself. “My workers were interested in my experiments and my success.”

I sent to the ministry before I was granted the patent and that have

since been on display in the technical bureau, to demonstrate the suc-

cess of the realization of such wheels on such a great scale by means

of a combination of tools and manipulations that are my own.”

As if every blacksmith had already known the method! If that had

been the case, you could hardly take the royal technical deputation for

trade and the royal ministerial department for railway affairs seriously

anymore, Krupp suggests. “Both have acknowledged my method as

being important.”

Success, of course, took time. The method was very complicat-

ed, and testing began on a very small scale, with nothing yet evident

of the technique by which railway wheels are being produced as we

speak in 1859, Krupp says. The path leading there had to be kept se-

cret as much as possible, because his research had yielded him an im-

measurable financial advantage. Seen as a whole, he deems himself

satisfied.

“Work was done in large workshops, filled with people,” he says.

“My workers were interested in my experiments and my successes. They

take part in them, because they know that the prosperity of the company

also secures their well-being. They have had this experience from the ear-

lier improvements, they are proud of it, and they like to talk about it.” De-

spite all obstacles and setbacks with the initial experiments, Krupp per-

severed, as was consistent with his character. In this he differed from his

partner, Sölling, and still marvels at a letter his partner wrote him on

March 23, 1851 in which he likened the wheels to the proverbial “two

birds in the bush,” instead of the one in the hand – the current business.

“I have never thought much of it and never will, because only the present

time belongs to us,” he wrote.

WHEEL FITTINGS FOR THE MINISTRY

In fact, 21 rings, or wheels, were produced from January to April of

1851, the smallest one weighing 23 kilograms (50 lbs.), the largest

421 kilograms and cast out of 18 crucibles. “My first hardened roll was

as thick as a finger, the first bandages and disk wheels fit easily into

a glove, the first cannon was a foot long. With all of these early

experiments we learned something,” is how Krupp sums up this part

of his life.

He hadn’t intended to go into so much detail, he adds, for fear of

telling too much about the details of his inventions. Only this much: a

steel rod with a square cross-section (the “hollow”) was sawed in half.

Wedges forced the opening further apart, which was continually pulled

apart, with the circular forging following. The first tire in its original size

72

“The patent was unchallenged”

was manufactured on Feb. 13, 1852, and polished to the hilt. It reached

the Trade Ministry in Berlin by train.

His patent was supposed to run for 15 years. At least, that is what

he had applied for, claiming that the development work – the “manipu-

lation,” he calls it – was so elaborate and expensive that he needed an

extended period to recover his costs. The Prussian minister was not

very impressed by his admonitions, and after negotiations an eight-

year period was decided in the final patent declaration, on March 21,

1853. “I am,” Krupp adds, “currently conducting talks with the gentle-

men. I am positive that I will be able to receive an extension of the

patent period.”

COMPANY OWNER WITH SERIAL PRODUCTION

The greatest difficulty, according to Krupp, was moving from individual

production to serial production, which required new techniques and

equipment. Among them: The driving in of hollows into the “casting,”

a cast iron form; the thickening of the hollows on the ends where the

holes were drilled, in order to prevent cracks, and the introduction of

new lathes that by 1852 measured up to 24 inches (63 centimeters), al-

lowing wheels with a diameter of 1.25 meters to be machined. Most im-

portant of all was the contribution made by the bandage mill – the “tires

mill,” as Sölling called it – Krupp recalls.

He takes something from a cabinet – his own sketch for the tire

mill, which he did in 1854. “A complicated matter that essentially re-

quires three work steps,” he says, explaining them: The mounting of

the glowing tire blank on the fixed ring, the “thinning of the circle” in

parts, and the whole rolling process that is followed by the gathering of

the wheel and the forming of its wheel flange before the tire got its final

form and diameter.

“The machine for the wheels went wonderfully,” Krupp remem-

bers of Feb. 11, 1856, the “birthday” of his new technical innovation,

which generated huge new orders and a much improved profit margin.

Overall prosperity was still not imminent, but Krupp stuck to one

principle above all: Deliver the highest quality, using the best materials

(he even guaranteed his wheels). The new rolling mill can produce

heretofore almost unimaginable quantities, and he is clearly impressed

by his own foresight. “It is working so well that it will be able to deliver

80 units a day, or so I believed by April of 1856. You can figure out your-

self what this means on a yearly basis: we could have easily delivered

24,000.”

Alfred Krupp’s patent was valid in many countries, including France and Britain, but also America. He personally made the drafts for the final drawings.

Could have or should have? The fine but significant discrepancy can be

expressed in numbers, concrete order and even more concrete produc-

tion numbers. Orders, in some years, came in like crazy. “In 1853 we

had a total of 16 orders, but we produced six,” the sole owner of the

company says. “Volume increased dramatically; in 1857, our best year,

we had 4,122 orders, we even produced 4,167 wheels. But then last

year: in 1858 we had only 1,309 orders, and 1,313 deliveries.” And

currently? The situation is getting markedly better, Krupp says. “We are

being swamped with inquiries. I think we will end up with about 4,400

orders, but unfortunately we can only produce about 2,650. But next

year will surpass everything so far. If everything develops as we think it

will, we will get more than 8,000 orders.”

The fire should not go out anymore; that is his vision. Even if the

workers have to work more than they like, they too will profit from the

growth of his company. And by the way, he also pays good to very good

wages. “I’ll give you an example: 1855, four years ago, I paid one of

my best workers, the annealing foreman Borgmann, who was in charge

of the annealing of the important cast steel mills, 30 talers a month, 3

silver pennies (groschen) for every hour of overtime, and about five

talers for rent. Should he become invalid or completely unable to work,

I obligated myself to pay him a pension of 20 talers a month for the rest

of his life. Is a promise like that exploitation?”

Krupp is – who would want to doubt it – the master of his ever-

growing empire. In the old days he really took care of everything him-

self, but in 1859 this is no longer possible; the company is too big, so

he must try to find the right people, ones he can really trust.

RULER OVER A GROWING EMPIRE

“In my instructions you can often read the sentence: ’I do not want to

know anything other than the necessary and agreeable, and what can

be decided without me I do not want to know at all,” he says, in what

amounts to an early but sound and succinct management strategy.

The time comes when our host politely explains that he must

now return to business, but before his visitor leaves he confides that

he is contemplating making the rings shape represented in his rail-

road wheels, the invention he is so proud of, the symbol of his com-

pany. Snapping on flags in the wind, he sees the rings as the perfect

symbol for a company that has gone through difficult times but

keeps moving ahead, completely committed to progress and tech-

nological advancement. 7

Putting the right spin on thingsRothe Erde is Lord of the Big Rings

By Benedikt Breith | Photos Rothe Erde

Today’s large milled rings are precision products, and Rothe Erde has developed a technique that allows the production monitoring system to be fully integrated into the anti-friction bearing. The result: Sensors constantly send data from the inside of the ring, allowing precise adjustments to be made to rings that have a diameter of up to 8 meters, or 26 feet.

76 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

In the Orient, large rings have always been a symbol of power and dis-

tinction. A ring has no beginning and no end, is an integral unit all by

itself, and therefore represents completion and perfection. At least

that’s what the philosophers think. Technical people don’t look at it

quite so romantically, but that is not to say there isn’t a certain fascina-

tion: Ask Johannes Wozniak.

A technician and holder of a doctorate in engineering, Wozniak

has spent almost his entire career in Dortmund at Rothe Erde GmbH, a

business unit of ThyssenKrupp Technologies where Wozniak serves as

Chairman of the Executive Board and so knows all about rings. Running

a business is one thing, but to accompany Wozniak through the rolling

mill in Dortmund is to see that his real passion is engineering, and that

he is a real-life “Lord of the Big Rings.” Rings and bearings emerge day

and night from the rolling mill in Tremonia Street: some small, others

large, and others still immense, with diameters of anything from 40

centimeters (16 inches) to 8 meters (26 feet).

Rings from Rothe Erde are known for quality around the world.

One of the things Alfred Krupp, who held the patent for a seamless

rolled ring, most enjoyed seeing was the refined technology of the

rolling mill and the things it produced. For the perfection of the ring is a

result of perfection in production.

Almost as though by some magical hand the steel ingot, glowing

yellow and red and between 1,000 and 1,050 degrees Celsius (1,830

to 1,920 Fahrenheit), starts moving. Wozniak calls it the “crowned per-

forated cap.” Meter-sized tapered rolls distributed both above and

under the ring begin their all-enveloping art work, first on a radial and

then on an axial basis. Designed precisely for each other, the interplay

of main rolls, mandrels and tapered rolls turns the ingot into a ring with

exactly the right diameter.

RINGS TO HELP TURN THE WORLD OF TOMORROW

The mythically inclined will suspect it borders on magic, but Wozniak ex-

plains that there is a more prosaic explanation for the seeming wizardry:

“Behind the milling strategy is a very complicated steering technology,”

he says.

A lot of steel is used here – 6,500 tons every month, requiring a

large warehouse to hold the input material (ingot or continuous cast-

ing). But even here there has long been a place for high technology,

because to maintain the very exacting manufacturing tolerances an

Technology of the future

Ring tolerances are exceedinglyexacting, but Rothe Erde’s

computer-directed processesallow a degree of precision usually associated with the

space and aeronautics industries.This enables them to stand up

to the toughest conditions.

The basic rings are produced in Dortmund and then sent to the Rothe Erde plant in Lippstadt, where final preparations are made. These include turning, drilling, induction hardening, grindingand – when necessary – cutting.

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 77

advanced saw is equipped with a weighing installation to ensure that

the optimal size is reached when cutting the metal so that the ring will

have exactly the right diameter.

The ingot is then warmed and inserted into a press that can bring

up to 4,000 tons of pressure, then compressed and drilled. Finally, the

“core” falls away. Only later will the rounded unit be brought into the

mill.

The miller watches the entire operation closely, monitoring every

detail on a computer screen flashing multiple colors and numerous

numbers. If a deviation is noticed an adjustment can be made or, if nec-

essary, the milling process can be broken off altogether. For it is es-

sential that the ring not be too big. It’s better to be a bit small, for the

widening machine to the side makes it possible to increase the ring’s

size. “It lets you save the ring. Otherwise it will burn through, and end

up as scrap,” says Wozniak.

As powerful and awe-inspiring as they seem, the rings are the re-

sult of precise and well elaborated mechanical thinking, directed by

CAD and DNC programs, quantity control machines and automated

rolling machines with tolerances that cannot surpass 0.2 millimeters,

regardless of how big the rings are.

In Dortmund, only anti-friction bearings are produced: Here they

are standardized, quenched (with water or oil), rolled and tested for

hardness. In short, they are put up against all the necessary tests that

allow them to receive the international ISO 9002 standard.

“Things go round here,” says Wozniak, for whom the old expres-

sion clearly has a double meaning. “When nothing turns any longer,

then nothing will happen here.”

Wozniak can hardly list all the fields where anti-friction bearings

produced from Rothe Erde rings are needed: In the space and aero-

nautics industry, for power-generating windmills, cranes, digging ma-

chines, tunnel borers and, of course, for offshore technology. They are

at work in large gears, ring gears, steel plants, and as large-diameter

bearings. Not long ago, for a special offshore ship, a giant segment

bearing had to be built with a diameter of more than 10 meters and a

weight of 47 tons, “one of the biggest and heaviest bearings that was

ever built,” as Wozniak puts it.

The plant in Dortmund is only one side of the Rothe Erde brand; the

name, which means “red earth,” came from the Aachen suburb of Rothe

Erde, home of the steelmaker Carl Ruetz, who established the company

in Dortmund in 1861. When the rings have reached their perfect size in

Dortmund, they are shipped to the Rothe Erde plant in Lippstadt, a large

facility for the finishing of anti-friction bearings: There they are turned,

drilled, hardened and ground, and teeth are cut when necessary.

The uninitiated might think that things get simple after the basic

ring is completed, but in fact the work in Lippstadt is also very compli-

cated, and is precisely controlled by computer programs. The facility is

extremely flexible for the needs of diverse clients; gear teeth can be cut

into either the inside or the outside of the wheel, for example.

Today’s computer technology is a big advantage, helping create

a situation whereby customers’ individual specifications – meeting

them, in Wozniak’s view, is one of the special challenges relished by the

employees of Rothe Erde – can be worked out in advance and met to

the optimum degree possible. “Finite calculation of the elements,” says

Wozniak, “guarantee the efficient and secure sizing of weight-bearing

and form-critical parts.”

A DIAGNOSTIC SYSTEM FOR OFFSHORE USE

It takes a lot of planning. At his desk, Wozniak takes a piece of paper

and draws several lines through it, listing various problems in the mill,

where linearities and non-linerarities exist, the ratio between axial and

radial strengths, where the so-called line tension is, and where and how

things must be placed.

It is a science in itself, producing large-diameter bearings. With

the satisfaction of knowing he is speaking for the world leader in pro-

ducing and customizing these crucial industrial components, Wozniak

mentions that “in the offshore area we have developed a diagnostic

system that lets us look right into the anti-friction bearing. This inspec-

tion system works without disturbance – that means a crane, for exam-

ple, does not have to be disassembled to inspect the bearing. That

saves a lot of money. The integrated sensors send out their information

over loops, and on the computer you can now see all the inner parts.”

If monitoring companies like Lloyd’s Register of Shipping demand

such controls within the next few years, the Rothe Erde Eddy Current

Monitoring System (ECMS) will deliver the data quickly and easily.

The motto under which Rothe Erde’s approximately 4,200 em-

ployees around the world work sums up their mission of moving ever

forward in efficiency and technical progress. “We find the right spin for

the technology of today and tomorrow.” 7

78 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 79

The witches’ cavern is gigantic: hundreds of meters long, with loading cranes on

the ceiling equipped with hooks that can bear almost unimaginably heavy

weights. The converter with its golden glowing maw slowly approaches the vis-

itors’ side, ready to greedily receive the liquid pig iron from the torpedo ladle. Goethe,

the most German of all German poets, would have been in raptures at this sight. He

would have put these words into the mouth of his Mephistopheles: “Then go ye to the

red-hot forge, where the untiring dwarf folk beat metal and stone into sparks.” And

Faust, the alchemist, the “Nigromanta” (necromancer, or sorcerer), would have im-

mediately pondered the question of why such a spectacle invariably leads back to the

fundamental: as a return to primeval chaos, as a repetition of the cosmogony, as a

death of materials and their transformation and resurrection in a new form.

EVERYTHING IS OPTIMIZED

In reality, of course, this process is not so poetic: The long wall chart that Susanne

Berendes is carrying is reminiscent of a highly complex pattern sheet, and is a dia-

gram for intricate interconnecting logistical processes. About 40, with a hearty, joyful

laugh, Berendes is director for corporate planning and order systems at ThyssenKrupp

Stahl in Duisburg. Her area of competence is an unusual mixture of responsibility for

both overall strategic and operative planning, as well as for information technology

along the entire handling process, admits Berendes, who holds a Ph.D. in business

administration and is also an IT expert. “That is rather unusual.” What happens on

the long way from ore to the shiny, sparkling, rolled, possibly galvanized or lacquered

coil – which stems from it and is recognized as a high-tech

product? Cultural philosophers such as Mircea Eliade see

it in their own way: “Because mankind took it upon him-

self to alter nature, he has adopted the function of time.

The metallurgists, and particularly the alchemists, believe

they can bring to fruition what would otherwise have taken

millennia to ripen in the bowels of the earth.”

They do not just believe they can do this, they

actually achieve it too – as the logistical details prove.

This process chain begins in Brazil at the Companhia Vale

do Rio Doce (CVRD), the world’s largest iron ore producer.

Long-term contracts with the company guarantee

ThyssenKrupp Steel that a ship laden with 350,000 tons

of freight comes into Rotterdam once a month, unloading

its ore into mixing ponds there, from where it is trans-

ported by barge to Duisburg, where it is again disgorged

into mixing ponds “in a perfectly coordinated rhythm

which is controlled precisely,” as Ms. Berendes explains.

By “decomplicating” the procedure, she can cast

some light on this seemingly inextricable maze in a sim-

ple manner that nonetheless demonstrates its complexi-

ty. This includes the division into two basic processes: the

From ore to coilSteel production is based on a complex logistical concept

It takes time to make sinter out of the ores and the bindingagent, and then it is off to theblast furnace stage, where it will be mixed with coke and so-called “additions.” The resulting liquid pig iron can thenbe processed into steel.

By Heribert Klein | Photos Claudia Kempf

From the blast furnace to theconverter: For the uninitiated,seeing the converter’s gulletopen is a fascinating glimpseinto the fire, as molten pig iron mixes with scrap in anotherstep on the way to making highly refined steel.

80 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

progression from the ore stage to the blast furnace

process on the one hand (“Here we work on a volume

basis.”), and the phase from the steel works to the coil

on the other hand (“Here we work on a customer basis

nowadays.”). Although the two processes are complete-

ly detached from one another time-wise and can be re-

garded as separate, the entire steel logistics would

nonetheless fall apart – and cost a large amount of

money – without differentiated coordination of all the

necessary steps in the work process.

Hence, everything is optimized. Fine-grained ore is

mixed with a binding agent and baked into a hard, high-

ly porous material (sinter). Afterwards, it is mixed with

coke and so-called additions and put into the blast fur-

nace, heated to up to 1,500 degrees, before running into

the torpedo ladle as liquid pig iron during pouring, and

thereafter being transported from there to the steel

works, where it undergoes further processing.

Director Berendes can paint exquisitely beautiful

verbal pictures. The blast furnace, for example, wishes to

remain as uninterrupted as possible, but constantly has

a huge appetite. A soupy base is cooked in its interior –

“we cannot interrupt this process, the blast furnace can-

not simply be turned off, because the aggregate would

be destroyed.”

The emotional difference between a logistical plan

explained in the office and the display of the forces of na-

ture in the steel works is what remains vivid in the visitor’s

mind. While the theory is very dry, the practice is all the

more fascinating, despite its complexity: for example, dur-

ing the basic oxygen-steel-making process, when the tor-

pedo ladel tips its 400 tons of pig iron into the converter

that already holds scrap metal – so many sparks fly up-

ward that one fears for the existence of the steel works.

Hardly anyone can be seen in the towering hall. The glass

windows in the few control centers are darkened; the

seemingly formidable process is controlled and moni-

tored by only a few employees. Everything appears to run by magic according to a

predetermined plan, in which the notorious factor still plays a significant role in con-

trolling the processes – only not so much by on-the-spot hands-on work any more.

“Big decisions, when running a smelting works, are decisions based on experi-

ence,” Susanne Berendes qualifies. These include things like economic assessments

and customer behavior. The combination of an IT model, in the sense of an expert

system, with complex mental effort and expertise in several areas leads to coordina-

tion that is both timely and appropriate to the material and thus ensures the most ef-

ficient level of operation, she says. However, the process planner denies that this con-

stitutes human beings finding themselves being drawn into an unstoppable piece of

machinery (like Charlie Chaplin in the film “Modern Times”). “We have exactly the re-

verse situation here. The expert system makes the complex requirements of each el-

ement transparent. It helps us to make decisions regarding the control of the optimum

production sequence.”

THE LOGISTICS CHAIN STARTS WITH THE SELLER

The converter has hardly conducted its gleaming, red-gold innards into the contin-

uous casting mill when the molten steel begins to form a long strand while being

cooled by water. A gas cutting machine separates the cooling strand into sections,

known as steel slabs, that are around 12 meters long and 20 tons in weight.

The more sluggish the continuously running blast furnace and steel works

process appears, the subsequent order-driven production in the processing and re-

finement plants seems all the livelier. There, however, the circumstances have

changed radically, according to Berendes’ account. “Today, the seller is at the begin-

ning of the entire logistics chain. His requirements are mirrored in the plant configu-

ration, we return our assessment and give the go-ahead for the sale. A bulk product

grid is drawn up containing all the related processes that are required. This type of

micro-control is fine-tuned down to the hour and minutely planned.”

No wonder, when one recalls that ThyssenKrupp Stahl has a product range of

some 2,000 items in an era when inventory is kept to a minimum and production and

delivery are carried out “just in time” whenever possible. The magnitude of the rolling

mill in Duisburg-Hamborn can only be estimated. The diffuse light in the interior,

which is brightened slightly on the rare occasions when rays of sun shine in, only al-

lows visitors to guess where the sheer endless rolling train comes to a stop. The glow-

ing red slab becomes increasingly thinner the further it moves along the rolls, while

the strip that is shooting along on the rolls with growing speed while being sprayed by

water becomes increasingly longer. How long is the coil that will finally be rolled onto

From earth to fire

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

one table. No one can push themselves to the forefront, neither technician nor sales-

person. The salesperson who only wants to market high-end types of steel must

know that this also includes the production of lower quality types of steel.”

WORKING TO SHIFT THE NATURAL BOUNDARIES

Thus nature itself sets limits. Not every level of quality can be poured onto another in

the steel works, not every geometry can be combined with another – although that

would be highly desirable from an economic viewpoint.

Nonetheless, employees like Susanne Berendes work passionately to shift

these natural boundaries. For who knows where the limits really are? This has noth-

ing to do with necromancy or sorcery. It presupposes a lively, analytical mind that is

prepared to share its knowledge with others and thereby achieve progress. Thus

progress results from a joint effort. To quote from Faust: “The deed is everything, the

glory is naught.” Maybe this altruistic approach is the “quinta essentia,” the philoso-

phers’ stone, the fifth element along with water, fire, air and earth. One can only

stand and gaze in amazement at its elemental force and power in the blast furnace

and the steel works. However, as the philosophers of this world teach us, this amaze-

ment is only the beginning of philosophy and reflection – on ways in which the four

elements can be combined and coordinated better, without using any magic or witch-

craft at all, but instead employing all the more human intelligence. 7

Another step closer to the finished product, slabs of slowly cooling, top-qualitymolten steel are cut by torchesinto strips, each 12 meters (40 feet) long and weighing 20 metric tons. They are thensent to the rolling mill, where they are worked into different forms.

the coiler likely to be? “The band you have just seen will

be 521 meters long,” said the man in the control center.

“But we could roll the slab down to a length of more than

a kilometer.”

This has nothing to do with the above-mentioned

primeval chaos of which the process inside the blast fur-

nace is figuratively reminiscent. If at all, then Susanne

Berendes and many others seek the philosophers’ stone

in planning rounds, strategic meetings and coordination

committees. It could be considered found if everything,

but then absolutely everything, was used to optimum ca-

pacity and ideally coordinated with everything else, that

is, if the technician in the steel mill was just as satisfied

as the field salesperson visiting the customer. At this

juncture, a change of views has set in, notes Director

Berendes: “We learned to shift our processes from an in-

ternal to an external viewpoint. We infer from the cus-

tomer what has to be made and how. Especially the de-

mands of the automobile industry for large modules

necessitate people from several disciplines to sit down at

From the mill to the customer

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 83

84 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 85

In the right place, at the right time

By Inken Heeb | Photos Thomas Rabsch

The British press can be pretty tough when it comes to the coun-

try’s once world-beating rail system: Passengers are charged

too much, the papers say, for the dubious privilege of traveling

on trains that are too slow and run on outdated infrastructure.

Although he is a German, Harald Weiss also knows quite a bit

about trains in Britain, and says diplomatically that he has “enjoyed

them to the fullest.” Serving as the project manager for ThyssenKrupp

GfT during the first phase of the Channel Tunnel Rail Project meant fre-

quent flights from Düsseldorf to London and then a journey by com-

muter train to the town of Ashford, in the county of Kent, where the con-

trol center for the work was based. The type of commuter trains still

widely used in some parts of Britain, which date back to the 1950’s, are

slow and not very comfortable, since entry and exit is achieved by

squeezing past the other passengers. And the door must be slammed

so firmly that “slam-door trains” is a household term. Although there is

a reservoir of affection for these antiques, Britons are already looking

forward to the era of more modern rail technology now on the way.

The Channel Tunnel Rail Link, known as CTRL, marks a hugely

important step in the modernization of the British rail system, and its

first phase is nearing completion: 74 kilometers (46 miles) of high-

speed line from the mouth of the tunnel on the English Channel to

northern Kent, not far from London’s outer suburbs. This prestige

project, on behalf of client Union Railways, a subsidiary of London

and Continental Railways, is project managed by Rail Link Engineer-

ing (RLE), which brought engineering services company AMEC SPIE

on board along with ThyssenKrupp GfT as a subcontractor.

The first phase of the project is set to come into service this au-

tumn, with the entire project planned for completion in 2007. From

that point, the airlines can expect very stiff competition for the custom

of business travelers between London and Paris: Passengers will be

able to settle into a comfortable train seat and ride from Paris, under

the English Channel and through the Kent countryside, right into ven-

erable St. Pancras Station in central London in one seamless high-

speed journey at speeds of up to 300 km/h (186 mph). But trains run-

ning at 300 km/h do not run on ordinary tracks, so the CTRL required

special track sections of about 300 meters (985 feet) to be laid right

from Folkestone and north across Kent, marking the first time in Eng-

land’s long rail history that tracks of this length were used. The usual

British standard is 36 meters, but this means a welding seam every 36

meters, each of which sends a slight vibration running through the train

and represents a potential break in the track.

PASSENGERS DON’T EVEN NOTICE THE SEAMS BETWEEN TRACKS

On the European Continent, longer track sections are customary, and

for high-speed lines a length of 120 meters is typical. To create even

longer sections, several are welded together with top-quality materi-

It took advanced logistics to ensure the smooth, timely delivery ofalmost 3,000 rails from Germany to England for the construction of a high-speed rail line running north from the Channel Tunnel through picturesque Kent. Direction London

A high-speed trip through beautiful Kent, in southeastern England: A million trees were planted alongside the new rail link in order to help it blend in with the landscape. The new line will take passengers between London and Paris in thefastest possible time, thanks tostate-of-the-art technology.

86 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

London to Paris at up to 300 km/h

als, creating a seam that is not only stronger than the usual aluminum-

thermal weld but is so smooth that passengers do not even notice it as

they travel at 300 km/h. “For the CTRL project we used naturally milled

track sections of 108 meters in length, and three of them were welded

together to create a 324-meter long section,” explains Tilo Quink,

ThyssenKrupp GfT’s sales director, who also served as the project di-

rector. For the first phase of the project, 2,952 108-meter sections

were shipped to Britain.

‘THE WHOLE PROJECT HAD TO RUN LIKE CLOCKWORK’

Getting them there meant some complex logistics had to be arranged

by project manager Weiss and his colleagues. “The biggest challenge

was getting the proper number of track sections to the right place at the

right time,” says Weiss. “The whole project had to run like clockwork.”

The entire process – from production of the rails at the milling work in

Duisburg through transport to England (via the Channel Tunnel, natu-

rally) and delivery – took about nine months and had to run smoothly,

even though Weiss and his staff ran into a number of problems.Chief

among them were a closure of the tunnel and bottlenecks caused by a

shortage of the specially dimensioned rail cars needed to haul the rails:

There are only 270 such cars in all of Europe, and 46 of them were

needed at all times by the CTRL project. “It was nerve-wracking,”

Quink admits.Not that getting the rails there was the only worry – far

from it, for Weiss and his team had to build an entire infrastructure to

prepare the rails on site. At the start there was not even a welding

plant available, forcing Quink into a quick decision: “If there’s no

welding plant over there, then we’ll build one.”

17 RAIL CARS CARRIED OUT EACH COMPLETED TRACK SECTION

As a result, the construction camp and marshaling yard built for the

CTRL project at a site known as Beechbrook Farm, near Ashford, be-

came home to a large rail shuttling facility encompassing 37 kilometers

of rail lines and a plant with a welding line stretching some 650 meters.

In fact, the shuttling facility was so big that ThyssenKrupp GfT could

store its latest shipments of tracks from Duisburg on site, assuring a

supply of material even when there were transport disruptions. Six rail

cars were used to take every 108-meter track section into the welding

plant; 17 cars would take out a shipment of 32 of the resulting 324-meter

sections and deliver them to the railbed.

PRESERVING KENT’S LANDSCAPE WAS A PRIORITY

Ashford was chosen as the base of operations both because it is at

about the half-way point of the project and because it is connected to

the existing system, an obvious necessity for delivering the materials

and especially the tracks for the new line.

An important condition of getting approval for the project was to

guarantee that it blend in as much as possible with the countryside of

Kent, a picturesque county known as “the Garden of England.” Not

only were some 1 million trees planted along the line, but engineers

kept the project as far away from villages as they could, and a few

16th century farmhouses were moved rather than being simply de-

molished. Once-bustling Beechbrook Farm, meanwhile, its function

as the focus of construction activity now over, is in the process of dis-

appearing without a trace. Buildings are being knocked down, and the

long kilometers of shuttling tracks are being removed, so that this for-

mer green pasture will soon be pristine land again.

The actual track work for the first phase of the CTRL project was

completed in June 2002, exactly on schedule, and following exhaus-

tive testing of the line the Eurostar train has been racing up and down

it since April of this year. Assuming this test phase continues to go

well, the first passengers will be traveling at 300 km/h across Kent’s

charming landscape starting in late September.

“Finally,” Weiss says with a laugh. 7

A rail unlike any other: For the first time, 108-meter-long naturally rolled rails

were installed in England, where they werewelded into 324-meter sections near Ashford. They guarantee a top safety

standard and smooth traveling even atspeeds of 300 km/h.

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 87

88 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

A new standard for going(partway) up to the heavensThe ISIS elevator reaches the summit in innovation for getting people up and down

By Heribert Klein | Illustrations Tobias Wandres

In a time long ago Isis, the immortal goddess, lived in Atlantis, but left the island be-

fore the sinking of this legendary realm to go to Egypt with a number of selected fol-

lowers – and founded a new culture there exclusively with and for women. Training

in the mysteries and secret sciences was long and difficult, but, the myths say, cheer-

ful and open-minded: Only through such training could godly immortality be attained,

and only thus could anyone become like Isis.

Gary Elliott bears no resemblance to a secret scientist, and his post does not ex-

actly hint at anything mythical – he heads the elevator segment of the ThyssenKrupp

Group. Yet Elliott deals with movement, and may be living proof that calm is the source

of strength. There is no sense of the hectic in his open, bright office at the Düsseldorf

headquarters.

So what does ISIS stand for? Of course, at ThyssenKrupp it’s not a secret sci-

ence but a new elevator concept, designed for mid-rise buildings up to 13 floors. In

other words, ISIS stands for “a low-cost global elevator of high quality.”

BETTER QUALITY FOR HIGHER PERFORMANCE

When the discussion turns to the details, a visitor can sense Elliott’s continuing en-

thusiasm about the machines he works with. “For me it has always been and still is a

joy to be able to deal with elevators,” he says.

His biography confirms that elevators have, in fact, long been part of his life.

Born in Canada, Elliott went to work for a small elevator company after his engineer-

ing studies, initially in the engineering department, then at branch level and finally as

the head of the company. Then, together with two partners, he founded his own com-

pany.

“In Canada, we came close to becoming the market leader,” he says matter-of-

factly. To complete this part of his life story: When his two partners left the venture,

the company was sold in the mid-1980s to Thyssen, where his name and reputation

were not forgotten. In 1996, he received an offer to join the management of Thyssen’s

elevator unit. He came to Germany in 1997 and is now Chairman of the Management

Board at ThyssenKrupp Elevator. Asked what he finds so

exciting about elevators, which many outsiders imagine

as not especially interesting, Elliott responds immediate-

ly. “It is the only business in the world where, figurative-

ly speaking, we accompany the product from its birth to

the funeral,” he says. “For we invent our products, advise

the architects and service the elevators, all over the life

cycle of a building, an average of 50 years. There is no

comparable product.”

This comparability is the reason why Elliott

has high hopes for the ISIS concept. Tech-

nological progress in elevator technology

has been immense in recent years, he says.

ISIS advances this progress spiral with

several innovations. These include above all

the traction ropes: instead of the usual steel, ISIS’s

are made of kevlar, a super-strong synthetic. With steel

traction ropes, the sheave has to measure 40 times the

ropes’ average thickness, but with kevlar a factor of 20

suffices, so the drive can be smaller. The drive itself is lo-

cated in the shaft pit, where it is installed directly under

the cab platform. A more space-saving concept is hardly

conceivable. Elliott keeps drawing new details on a white

sheet of paper, showing with short lines how ISIS re-

places the hydraulic elevator. He lists the immense ad-

vantages: better quality, better performance, greater re-

liability, smaller engines, smaller traction sheaves with

higher torque, higher longevity for the traction ropes, and

less noise.

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 89

Traction ropes made from kevlar are a key component in the ISIS elevator concept, since they allow a smaller drive with highertorque. This means the drive can bemade compact enough to be installeddirectly under the cab platform, which is a major space-saver.

Everything will be easier with ISIS

“Everything is becoming easier,” he adds. A wonderful

phrase to the ears of a manager, for the lightness of

being is part of man’s dreams, and ISIS certainly incor-

porates this idea. ISIS, which was developed and built in

San Diego, is to be sold around the world as a techno-

logically sophisticated standard elevator whose concept

nonetheless offers the flexibility required by architects

and construction planners. For there is indeed a sort of

universal elevator culture.

Not as far as the underlying technology is con-

cerned, though. Depending on where they come from,

architects have their own ideas about the cab interior.

The Germans, Elliott explains, prefer stainless steel and

glass, while the French like to use different colors, and

wood is en vogue in Spain.

One can sense that Elliott, the Canadian, feels at

home in many countries. Really at home? That would be

exaggerated. Still, “I’m out of the office most of the

time,” is how he describes his working environment. In

this respect he sees himself on one level with the em-

Gary Elliott, Chairman, ThyssenKrupp Elevator AG

ployees of his elevator division, which includes 800 local branches with current an-

nual turnover of EUR 3.5 billion.

Despite his reserved manner, Elliott is not at all reserved when it comes to his

goals for the future. “We want to become the number two in the world, although we

know that this won’t be possible without a major acquisition,” he says.

Better methods, committed employees, innovative ideas, proximity to the cus-

tomer – these are the parameters with which “Mr. Elevator” wants to get ahead on the

road to success. To sell more of his high-tech products, which have one striking char-

acteristic: The relationship between manufacturer and customer lasts over several

generations. This also explains the fact that 50 percent of the business is “after

sales.”

“When we install more elevators in new buildings we record exponential growth

in maintenance and, after about 15 years, modernization business.” Which reminds

him of the comment of a car manufacturer who said that his average customer value

was EUR 150,000. “Because of the long relationship, our average customer repre-

sents a value of EUR 1 million,” Elliott notes.

CREATING AN IMMORTAL SALES PRODUCT

He is one of a relative handful of native English speakers who have moved to Ger-

many. His wife joined him, and he has learned German, which he now speaks very

well and wants to improve further. Does he miss the quiet and solitude of the great

Canadian outdoors? No, not really, and for professional reasons he has always had to

move around the big cities of this world. He feels at home in Germany, thinks that

there is plenty to see and do, and when he is in the mood for something completely

different he can be in any of three other countries within an hour’s drive of Düsseldorf.

In ancient times, the goddess Isis also felt drawn to new environments, to dis-

perse the culture of Atlantis in other countries. This Atlantis-Isis culture matches the

ideas of ISIS maker Gary Elliott quite well. For the kings of Atlantis maintained a sober,

balanced view of the world, and were not under the spell of the gold copper ore that

was produced on their island. They also believed that only together could they face

up to the vagaries of fate.

Elliott knows that only the joint efforts of all those involved can lead ISIS to

worldwide success. Everybody has to contribute their creativity – in the office build-

ing, the hotel, the hospital, the retirement home; in short, wherever ISIS may be put

to use in the future. ISIS has already passed the required, complex tests (which Isis

knew, too) at ThyssenKrupp.

In that sense, nothing now stands in the way of ISIS becoming an immortal

sales product. 7

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 91

A worldwide concept: The standard ISIS elevator is to be offered everywhere. And yet the technology remainsflexible enough to meet the differing requirements of individual architects and construction planners.

The title of the corporate CD sounds like an invitation to get active:

Entdecken, erfahren, erforschen (Discover, Experience, Research)

is written on the metal cover. But to do so you will have to travel to

northern Saarland, to the rural idyll of the village of Lockweiler.

The spacious premises of Nothelfer (the name literally means

“emergency helper” and came from founder Walter Nothelfer) are

found near the village outskirts and have grown from the small manu-

facturing business set up by Nothelfer in Ravensburg in 1921. Today,

Nothelfer – a company that is part of ThyssenKrupp Technologies’ auto

body technology unit – sees itself as a highly specialized company that

supplies technology for the cars of tomorrow.

Nothelfer’s specialties are tools with which steel or aluminum

panels are formed into fenders, hoods, doors, walls or roofs, as well as

installations that allow carmakers to combine the individual body parts

to form a body in white and, starting with the painted car body, assem-

ble the vehicle.

Managing Director Peter Zeller, a man in his 40s with a doctorate

in mechanical engineering, offers a colorful description of the compa-

ny’s services spectrum. Not in every detail, of course, Zeller says apolo-

getically, referring to the strict security measures at the plant, which re-

flect the fact that discretion is part of Nothelfer’s capital. After all, as a

partner of car manufacturers, the company deals with models and de-

sign studies which nobody has seen yet and which may only come to

market several years from now.

BRINGING MOTION INTO AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING

So we don’t even venture to ask questions that cannot be answered

anyway, but rather solve another secret which Zeller addresses more

openly because it is a success story: “Simultaneous Engineering” (SE).

Figuratively speaking, Nothelfer has really brought motion into automo-

tive engineering. Not without necessity because “time is money.”

“Simultaneous Engineering means giving up earlier ideas of tack-

ling the development of a new vehicle model in a sequential manner. In-

stead, we now start working together at a very early stage and handle

our developments simultaneously – which saves us a lot of time,” ex-

plains Zeller. While it used to take 50 to 60 months from design through

prototype, process and operating resources to final production, this pe-

riod has now been reduced to 30 to 36 months – a time saving of 40

percent, and the trend is continuing.

It all still sounds rather abstract, though no more abstract than the

official definition of SE given by the German Mechanical and Plant En-

gineering Association (VDMA): “SE is an organizational strategy that al-

lows for an early and equal cooperation of all units of a company and

suppliers that are involved in the product and the operating means re-

quired to produce it.”

According to Zeller, Nothelfer applies its know-how to the cus-

tomer’s product from the beginning and contributes to product and

process improvement through parallel and integrative processes. He

cites a concrete example from car body technology: A few years ago,

the company developed a window guide rail whose frame consisted of

three parts. To produce it, the company needed three sets of tools,

three presses and a welding machine for completion. Why not produce

a frame from just one part, the engineers asked?

The result: The SE product eventually consisted of just one part

which required no more than one set of tools, and which also allowed

for the production of an additional part from the previously lost materi-

al on the inner side of the window guide rail.

THINKING AHEAD, AND DEVELOPING IN ADVANCE

A simple idea, yet one that, Zeller adds, was difficult to put into prac-

tice. “But we managed to do it,” he says with great satisfaction. “Even

if the new set of tools was relatively expensive, it saved us considerable

investment. Instead of three press lines we now need only one, which

means that we save two process phases and thus increase the avail-

able pressing capacity.” In addition, there is no need for a welding in-

stallation and the quality of the product was improved because it is now

pressed in one piece, meaning that an addition of individual tolerances

can be avoided.

Thinking ahead, developing in advance and trying things out is

part of what this high-tech company in the Saarland does. More than

92

Turning time pressureinto a business advantageSimultaneous Engineering at Nothelfer, where people know that time is money

By Heribert Klein

95 percent of the employees are skilled workers, specialists who devel-

op innovative new concepts. Nothelfer supplies its customers with con-

cepts, that is to say holistic solutions. “Our key aim is to provide our

customers with the basis to produce as cost-efficiently as possible, and

to let them know what is technically impossible, for example because a

material cannot be used to produce a certain desired geometry. Our

know-how in panel forming, laser welding technology and car body pro-

duction is of great help to us here.”

Anybody who rushes through the spacious factory halls at Zeller’s

side gets an idea of the high technological level at which Nothelfer em-

ployees work. Prototypes of the newly developed parts for the “auto-

mobilists,” as Zeller wryly calls them, are being produced on the press-

es. The “automobilists” are called Audi, BMW, DaimlerChrysler, Fiat,

Ford, General Motors, Jaguar, Land Rover, Opel, Seat, Skoda or VW.

Here, the customer can already get an idea of future production

processes, of how much space will be needed, and how many process

steps it will take.

Nothelfer as an emergency helper: why not? Customers and

Nothelfer both share in the time savings and cost reduction. Nonethe-

less, things are completely different from what they used to be. In the

old days, Zeller remembers, Nothelfer produced according to designs

that were supplied by the carmaker. “Today we not only make the de-

signs for our plants but also develop body parts and work out propos-

als for an optimal process chain, and in doing this, we are motivated by

reducing our unit costs at unchanged or improved quality.”

Beautiful new SE world. Or not? Zeller does not expect the con-

tinuously advanced SE to reduce development times to a few months

or even zero. At some point there comes a limit, says Zeller. “Then we

try to offer other services which are not yet available to our customers.”

Despite all efforts to achieve time and cost savings by linking up

product and process development as well as prototype construction,

the Nothelfer head does not forget to mention that the people who get

together, at Nothelfer and at the customer’s facility, have to get along.

For SE is a creative process which has above all one goal: setting think-

ing in motion and achieving greater successes through new solutions.

Life has gotten faster, Zeller notes. Nothelfer sees this as a chal-

lenge to regard this type of speed not as a threat but as an opportuni-

ty. The group’s strong, occasionally even solitary, international market

position (with more than 2,300 enployees today) is proof enough that

Nothelfer has turned the shortage of time into a virtue. 7

The principle of simultaneous engineering is simple: The car maker and theparts supplier begin working together as early as possible. Production time,from design to assembly, has been reduced to as little as 30 months.

1988 1992 1996 2003

51 9+-

43 7+-

36 6+-

30 5+-

In the flow of motionRowing – man and nature join forces so that the boatcan slice through the water. And the cox sets the rhythm

By Inken Heeb | Photos Walter Schmitz

With only a few commands, Stefan Lier directs his team ofrowers in safety as theypull together in pursuit of victory.For the past eight yearsthe 21-year-old Lier hasdevoted almost all his free timeto this demanding sport.

Authority based on experience

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 99

He is one with the boat. With his feet pressed hard against the foot supports and

his hands on the rudder line, he feels every wave and current as the narrow,18-

meter- (60-foot-) long rowing shell slices through the water of the Ems Canal

in Dortmund. This man with a feel for both boat and water is Stefan Lier, 21, the cox

in the eight-man rowing team representing Germany in the under-23 category in

July’s world rowing championships in Belgrade.

Being a top competitor in rowing takes more than sheer muscle, and providing

the “more” in this case is Lier’s responsibility. He decides on the strategy and coor-

dinates the work of the eight rowers, which, if not properly directed, can bring the boat

to a sudden stop.

“The goal,” he explains, “is a constant, fluid motion” that is only reached when

the movement of the boat and the oars is perfectly matched. There must be a seam-

less transformation between the “pull” phase, when the rowers place their oars into

the water and then draw on them to propel the boat forward, and the “glide” phase,

when the oars are pulled from the water and moved forward through the air to begin

the process anew.

A FEEL FOR THE BOAT AND THE TEAM

“This reversal point between gliding and pulling should be as smooth as possible,”

adds Lier, who must know how to take the boat through this point without loss of mo-

mentum. A big part of the cox’s job is to have a feeling for the rowing cycle, and in

particular for the precise moment when the rowers need to make the switch. Lier has

only his judgement – and his voice, expressed through a few simple commands – to

ensure that a vessel weighing almost a ton moves forward as quickly as possible,

reaching speeds of up to 25 kilometers (16 miles) per hour. “I have to get through to

my team with my voice, despite the extreme physical demands they are facing,” says

Stefan Lier’s word counts – both in competitions and intraining sessions. Since authority,commitment and respectare the basis for recognitionwithin the team, it is irrelevantthat some of the others in the boat tower over him.

Moving in unison

Lier. “I use speech to express a changing emphasis;

sometimes shorter directions and sometimes longer

ones, sometimes loud and sometimes quiet.”

Nothing is left to chance. The rowers listen to their

cox and have to trust him to guide them safely and sure-

ly: No one else in the boat is in such a good position to

gauge its movement, and everyone else has their backs

turned on the direction the boat is moving, and are hence

unable to see what lies ahead. Trust is everything – along

with authority. “I have absolute authority and must have

it,” says Lier, his words showing a determination to pre-

vail that at first glance one might not have expected from

the slight student, who is 1.76 meters (5’9") in height,

making him significantly shorter than the average rower.

That is normal for the average cox – like jockeys, the

smaller and lighter the better, and Lier is already on the

borderline of being too tall for the job. To keep it, he must

also battle to maintain the ideal cox’s weight of 55 kilo-

grams (121 lbs.), which he accomplishes through a strict

running program.

Recognizing his ambition, self-confidence and sov-

ereign air, the rowers don’t bat an eye when Lier, his

blonde hair tucked under a baseball cap and his hands

busy steering, barks out another command: “Over five

ten strokes racing frequency – next!” sounds mystifying

to the lay person, but to rowers it is easily understand-

100 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

able. The team, from the next dip of the oars, is to raise its speed over five dips from

long-distance to racing frequency. In other words, go from 20 to 36 strokes per

minute.

ABILITY BASED ON YEARS OF EXPERIENCE

To get ready for the competition in Belgrade, the under-23 team trained every week-

end over the winter at the rowing training center in Dortmund, doing some 40 kilome-

ters up and down the Ems Canal every day. In the end, a team made up of rowers from

around Germany and led by Lier was gliding, seemingly effortlessly, down the water-

way in a perfect combination of strength and experience – something that Lier, despite

his young age, has plenty of. He started rowing at 13, when his stepfather was work-

ing as a coach at the Crefelder Rowing Club and in 1995 attended his first internation-

al competition, the junior world championship in Hazewinkel, Belgium, where he di-

rected a two-man boat. Last summer, at his first full-fledged world championship, he

was cox to the German four-man team that finished second in Seville, Spain. He will

also be starting with “his” four-man shell at the world championship in Milan in August.

“I am the coach’s long arm in the boat,” he says modestly.

“In the under-23s he’s the best we have,” says his coach, Thomas Affeldt. Adds

Lier’s team colleague, Konstantin Drews: “He is an outstanding cox.”

The same determination and ambition that Lier shows in rowing – a sport that

takes up 20 hours every week and several weeks of full-time training every summer –

is reflected in his “regular” life, where he obtained an Abitur, the diploma required to

attend a German university, and did his military service in a physical fitness training

To ensure that the sportleaves enough room for fun and studies, the “up 2 program” offers young rowers career advice. That also makes it easier to relax and celebrate together once in a while …

Living for top athletics

unit before beginning studies in economic engineering in

October 2002 in Dortmund, where he shares an apart-

ment with two other rowers. The course of study is broad,

and includes mathematics, economics, electronics and

information technology, English, business administra-

tion, mechanical engineering, physics and law. “I could-

n’t decide exactly what I wanted to take, and am inter-

ested in everything,” says Lier. His wide-ranging

interests are also evident in his choice of hobbies and

pastimes; somehow, he finds time to sing in a choir,

cycle, take an annual ski trip, and enjoy the occasional

movie with friends.

His discipline and marked ability to get along with

others are traits that Affeldt says are essential to a

good rower. “It is something of an elite sport, which

doesn’t suit everyone,” says the coach. “Rowing de-

mands a lot of time, and you have to be willing to work

on a team.”

These are also characteristics that appeal to em-

ployers, so performance athletes – and rowers in partic-

ular – are much sought in the business world, and last

autumn ThyssenKrupp approved Lier’s application for a

study grant. Along with monthly financial support, the

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 101

lonska; the latter clearly recalls how the young rower in-

troduced himself at a pre-competition training session at

the training center in the northern German city of Ratze-

burg and inquired about the ThyssenKrupp study pro-

gram. After submitting his application and related docu-

ments, and various one-one-one and group interviews,

Lier was accepted.

Another link between the Group and the cox is his

choice of a school: ThyssenKrupp concentrates on sup-

porting students in subjects like economics and engi-

neering, but also information technology and the social

sciences, at five universities, among then the University

of Dortmund, where Lier is studying. Another, more sen-

timental connection: Lier’s father and grandfather both

worked for the Group.

While this young man’s life is now marked by chal-

lenges, tremendous pressure and the need to work very

hard, Lier hopes to take it a little easier someday – to

glide through life, as it were, as smoothly as his boats

now race across the water. “At some point in the distance

future I would like to reach a quiet point,” he says.

Lier doesn’t know when that will be, only that he

has a lot to achieve before that day comes around. 7

program offers training programs in such areas as presentation techniques and pro-

ject management, mentoring from a ThyssenKrupp executive, and various other con-

tacts in the Group, including an internship.

“With the study grants we hope to make it easier for interesting people to com-

plete their studies, and in future gain something for our Group,” says Gerd Galonska,

the head of personnel marketing/Group labor market at ThyssenKrupp AG.

Lier certainly personifies the type of person the study grant program is designed

to help, with a focus on engineering and economics students who bring not only tech-

nical expertise but also a proven skill in working with other people. “We support peo-

ple who, along with the right course of study, bring a willingness to work hard, an abil-

ity to cope with a heavy workload, a goal-oriented approach and a team spirit,” says

Galonska, adding that this means individuals who can serve as role models for oth-

ers, something he sees in Lier.

“Even though he does things very conscientiously and leaves nothing to chance,

at the same time he has a very friendly and positive way about him,” Galonska says.

A POSITIVE PERSONALITY

His studies are in fact one of only several connections Lier has to ThyssenKrupp: The

Group is directly involved in rowing, which brought him to the Group’s attention. Along

with the German Rowing Association, ThyssenKrupp has initiated the “up 2 Program,”

which helps young rowers find their career orientation. As part of “up 2,” Thyssen-

Krupp has held information events at which time-pressed rowers can find out about

study and job possibilities. It was at just such an event last summer that Lier met Ga-

102 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

It is certainly an intricate maze of steel, and yet Scotland’s famous

Forth Rail Bridge is more than just another massive structure built to

serve an important but wholly practical purpose. As everyone who

sees it can attest, this span is also a creation of imposing elegance.

Steadfast and unshakeable, an engineering project for the ages,

its 1882 building permit described it as “the greatest bridge in the

world,” and the argument could still be made today. Sturdy against the

powerful winds that move up the Firth of Forth from the North Sea to the

Scottish Highlands, the bridge enables frequent passenger and freight

trains to make a safe crossing over the broad estuary. At almost 8,300

feet (2.5 kilometers) in length, with steel painted a distinctive reddish-

brown and climbing a full 104 meters (341 feet) into the sky, its size and

remarkable cantilever construction have impressed visitors and locals

alike while doing its tireless duty for more than a century.

The pride of Scotland

The Forth Rail Bridge has ensured the safe passage of innumerable trainsacross the estuary of the River Forth

By Inken Heeb | Photos Karl Lang

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 103

To ensure that it will continue to withstand the stresses of the trains

that cross it approximately every 10 minutes, running between nearby

Edinburgh and northern Scotland, the Forth Rail Bridge has been un-

dergoing extensive testing, maintenance and upgrading since 1999.

Brace by brace, girder by girder, the work proceeds, yet there is noth-

ing routine about this project for the engineers, safety experts and

other employees of the ThyssenKrupp subsidiary Palmers Limited. All

members of the team are Scottish and see their work almost as a pa-

triotic duty; the bridge, after all, is officially designated as part of the

National Heritage. Allan McConachie, who is responsible for material

logistics on the project, points out that the Japanese were so taken

with the bridge’s beauty and utility that they sounded out the possibil-

ity of dismantling it and taking it back to Japan. But, of course, the

Scots would never allow that.

The enthusiasm of the Palmers team for what they like to refer to as

“our bridge” was evident one clear but frigid day last winter when

Kevin Swift climbed more than 100 meters to the top of the northern-

most of the three cantilever sections, the “Fyfe cantilever,” to propose

to his girlfriend, Claire. Happily, she accepted, and as soon as she did

Swift’s colleagues came out from hiding behind a partition and sere-

naded the couple with a bagpipe. Needless to say, they were all invit-

ed to the wedding.

50,000 TONS OF STEEL AND 8 MILLION RIVETS

The project’s security and health manager, Brian Stewart, has become

an expert on the bridge, and seems to know it almost down to the 8 mil-

lion rivets that hold its 50,000 tons of steel together. In his free time he

collects trivia pertaining to the span and recently bought via the Inter-

Pastel-colored harmony:The artistic design of the cantilever steel rail bridgehas enthralled peoplewith its elegant symmetrysince its completion in 1880.

104 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

net a book published in 1911 that chronicles its development and con-

struction. For $55, “it was quite a steal,” he says.

In day-to-day work, of course, the top priority is not history but

safety, an especially complicated process because Palmers was re-

quired to guarantee that all work would be carried out without distur-

bance to regular rail traffic. For the highly skilled technical people work-

ing on the project, this means detailed planning of the work schedule

so that things can get done around the coming and going of the trains

without significant loss of time. It also requires special weekend shifts.

NO INTERRUPTION TO RAILROAD TRAFFIC

The project has required the erection of a huge scaffold over the tracks,

which run 45 meters above the river, as well as the assembly of 10,000

meters of scaffolding by the Palmers team last year alone. An addition-

al complication: A precisely measured area above and to the sides of

the tracks, the so-called “kinematic envelope,” must be kept absolute-

ly clear at all times.

The project involves two main tasks: checking the steel structure

for rust and possible weaknesses for client Network Rail, as well as re-

moving the entire coat of paint and replacing it with a new one. “The old

coat contains lead, which over the decades separates from the color

and leaks into the environment,” explains John Corrigan, whose job as

Palmers site manager makes him responsible for supervising all the

work at the bridge. The lead is also a potential health threat for his staff,

who must work in special protective clothing and undergo a health

check every month.

The old paint and rust are blasted away with a grit made from

crushed copper slag, and after it is vacuumed into large containers a

detailed check of the cleaned metal can begin. If the corrosion has been

extensive, something found so far only in the lower “splash zone” area

A much-traveled-over structure: The Forth Rail Bridgeconnects the river’s south bank near Edinburgh, the“Queen of Scottish cities,” with the Fife peninsula.

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 105

where the bridge is exposed to the salty water, that section of the steel

is replaced.

“When the bridge was built steel-making was still a very young

technology,” Stewart explains. “The steel back then had far more im-

purities than today’s steel.”

FOUR COATS OF PAINT TO PROTECT FROM WATER AND SALT

Because of the difference in quality between the two steels, in many

cases they could not be simply welded together. Instead, old and new

sections were attached with rivets or screws, as they were on the old

bridge. Once that was completed, Palmers could proceed to another

stage of work that is crucial for the preservation of the structure – the

painting.

In the splash zone, in fact, four coats are applied: The primer, then

two layers of glass-fiber reinforced coating, which is designed to resist

Steadfast and unshakeable

106 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

corrosion, and finally a polyurethane paint similar to that used on cars,

which is highly effective at shedding moisture. All of it, naturally, in

“Forth Bridge Red,” the official name of the red with brown tones that

is used. It is a years-long job to cover all 280,000 square meters (just

over 3 million square feet) of steel.

CHECKING THE BRIDGE’S STEEL FRAME

As for the steel of the bridge’s main frame, 20 millimeters (0.8 inch)

thick and up to 3 meters in diameter in the largest tubular sections, it

will eventually have to be checked from the inside – a task every bit as

unpleasant as working outside at heights that can make the uninitiated

dizzy. A lot of creatures have made their home inside the steel over the

past century, pigeons in particular, so heavy security clothing that pro-

tects against bacteria will have to be worn. That Palmers is undertaking

such a huge repair and restoration job does not mean the bridge was in

130 trains every day,around the clock

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 107

any danger of collapse. It is just timely maintenance, which will protect

well into the future a structure that construction and design engineer

Benjamin Baker built to last some 120 years ago.

The bridge is “five-times over-engineered from what was ab-

solutely necessary,” Stewart explains. “And the stone pillars support-

ing the track leading to the mainland haven’t moved a millimeter in all

these years.”

The builders of this great structure opted for the maximum of

safety and durability in the sobering knowledge of what had happened

to another bridge that opened in 1878, just five years before the start

of construction on the Forth Rail Bridge and only a few kilometers to the

north, on the Firth of Tay.

In a time of strong industrial growth in Britain, the railroad sys-

tem was considered increasingly essential to the country’s continued

modernization and was undergoing rapid expansion. But optimists

saw their faith shaken on December 28, 1879, when a powerful win-

ter storm caused central sections of the Tay Bridge to collapse and a

train plunged through into the water below, taking the lives of 75 pas-

sengers.

SAFETY FOR PASSENGERS AND TRAIN CREWS

When planning started for the Forth Rail Bridge, everyone was deter-

mined that such a disaster would not occur again. They wanted to pro-

vide maximum safety to every train, passenger or freight, that passed

over it. They not only built a landmark construction that draws tourists

to this corner of eastern Scotland, but one that is crossed, day in and

day out, by some 130 trains.

The team from Palmers is making sure that they can continue

making that crossing, and that the Forth Rail Bridge will stand proud-

ly, for a long time to come. 7

As solid as can be: Since the bridge was built,120 years ago, the stonesin the pillars holding up the bridge have not moved a millimeter.

108 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

It’s almost like life itself: It starts slowly, gradually speeds up, and

slowly comes to a halt again. It seems like the ride is over in no time.

The beautiful valley near Mieres, close to Oviedo in northern Spain,

is known locally as ThyssenKrupp Valley, but looks more like a holiday

destination than an industry location. The scenery reminds a visitor of

Germany’s Black Forest, with high mountains, lush vegetation and only

scattered houses. Like colorful dots, the deep blue writing “ThyssenKrupp”

stands out against the vivid green of the meadows.

The modern production plants, with their light, white-gray ap-

pearance, do not disturb the idyll of this valley. In the massive hall,

glass passenger gangways are the latest innovation under construction

(Madrid airport just commissioned the delivery of 81 of them). And just

a stone’s throw away, visitors can admire the pride of the escalator

plant: the prototype of a new type of moving walkway. From the outside,

the walkway looks entirely ordinary. There’s nothing special about the

handrails or the horizontally aligned steps (so-called pallets). So

where’s the difference?

Still, there’s something strange about the whole thing, the visitor

can’t help thinking. ThyssenKrupp Norte advertises its longstanding ex-

perience in escalator manufacturing, and the local managing director,

Miguel Angel Valverde, notes that the company just finished its 5,000th

(horizontal) moving walkway. Building on this experience, he confident-

ly asks a visitor to climb the small set of stairs and test the new moving

one. The tension rises – not as much as when entering a roller coaster,

perhaps, but still quite a bit.

Miguel Alemany, an engineer, is the brain behind this innovation.

It starts, initially unremarkably, at a speed comparable to moving walk-

ways now widely used at airports, which generally transport travelers at

a speed of 0.5 meters (about 20 inches) per second. The new walkway

produced in Mieres moves at a slightly higher speed – here, travelers

A helping hand for long walksMoving walkways made in northern Spain’s Asturia region accelerate smoothly and safely

It starts slowly, moving at just0.5 meters (about 20 inches)per second, and in this phase themoving walkway is similar to anescalator. But that is about tochange.

By Heribert Klein | Illustrations Tobias Wandres

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 109

move forward at a rate of 0.65 meters per second in the first phase. And

then? Stepping on to it reminds you of being in a car when the driver

hits the gas: Two or three meters have passed when the walkway does

credit to its name, “accelerating walkway.”

Now you are traveling at 7 kilometers (almost 4.5 miles) an hour,

almost twice the average human walking pace. Indeed this is an entirely

new feeling of movement, and without doubt a leap toward a new per-

ception of walkway technology.

MOVING WALKWAYS CAN MOVE A LOT OF PEOPLE FAST

The first patent for a walkway was issued in 1892, when George A.

Wheeler sought protection for his “Inclined Elevator” only to sell the

patent shortly thereafter. At the Paris World Exhibition in 1900 the trot-

toirs roulants (literally “rolling sidewalks”) incited great interest among

visitors, and in particular appeared to herald huge potential for taking

Then slow again: at the end ofthe “trip,” the walkway slowsdown, in the same way it earliersped up, so that passengers canmake a safe transition back towalking on an ordinary floor.

After only a few seconds, thepassenger starts to understandwhy this device is also called an“accelerating walkway,”because its speed quicklyincreases to about 7 kilometers(4.5 miles) an hour. That isabout twice the averageperson’s normal walking speed.

The handrail moves inperfect synchronizationwith the pallets onwhich the passengerstands. The key is a clever chain drivesystem that producesdifferent speeds to provide a smooth,secure-feeling ride.

Photo ThyssenKrupp N

orte S.A

.

110 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

people up and down, especially in department stores where crowds of

people could be transported smoothly and comfortably.

Connecting two floors with an accelerating walkway is an appeal-

ing idea. Given the acceleration and the slowing movement at the upper

end, the “walkway experience” would come close to a fun park visit.

THINK ABOUT IT IN MUSICAL TERMS

The engineers in Mieres, however, are now concentrating on longer,

horizontal distances, as in airports, subways or train stations, and as a

low-cost and space-saving alternative to the “people movers” that are

generally used at airports. A stretch of, say, 1,000 meters (3,300 feet)

would allow the engineers to really exploit the strong points of the new

transportation concept – transporting a lot of people speedily and cov-

ering long distances in less time while offering a new sensation that will

provide a little kick for both children and adults.

It’s clear that the development engineers of ThyssenKrupp Norte S.A.

have come up with an innovative idea. Indeed the project problematic

is very complex, explains Alemany. How does the technology work? Put

simply, imagine that the walkway is divided into three parts. The initial

slow section is followed by – put in musical terms – the Accelerando

section, where the pallets accelerate before reaching top speed. At the

end of the walkway, the experience repeats itself in reverse order as the

walkway user has to slow down in order to be able to step back safely

onto a floor that is not moving.

The pallet has a front and a rear end. The front part rests on four

guide pulleys, while the back part is linked to the front through a joint.

The pulleys ensure that one pallet slips underneath the other in the first

zone, meaning that the walkway user only sees the front part. When the

speed increases, the pallets move apart, and the full stretch becomes

visible. The motto of the engineers in northern Spain is just as simple

In this advanced technologysystem, the individual palletsare placed directly atopguide pulleys. In the start phase,pallets slide under each other,but as the walkway moves toward full speed, the palletsextend to their full width.

Shortly before the end of the “trip,”the walkway very gently slows down

TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 | 111

as it is demanding: “What you can imagine, you can achieve.” They

simply imagined different speeds at different points all at the same

time, no more but also no less. The solution consisted of specially

formed joints that run in an L shape on three hammer rolls, with the oth-

ers straight-shaped and resting on two hammer rolls. The different

speeds are attained in line with the principle of a chain whose links can

be unfolded. If the distance between the joints is reduced, the walkway

slows down and, if it increases, the walkway accelerates. In the longest,

middle part of the walkway, the high-speed zone, this differentiation is

not necessary. To save costs, fast-running traditional pallet belts serve

as drivers here. The above-mentioned complicated joint technology

comes back into action at the end of the walkway to ensure a smooth

arrival at the user’s destination.

But what would the walkway be without the handrail? Even the

tests show that regular users do not feel comfortable using a moving

walkway without support because the walkway moves too fast. The next

problem is programmed: the handrail has to run entirely synchronous-

ly with the pallet movement. The engineers also found a solution for this

problem by using a chain drive that enables different speeds, in paral-

lel with the speed of the walkway.

Once an aesthetically pleasing exterior – glass side parts that lend

a special appearance to the walkway (similar to the glass gangway) – is

added to all these innovative technological ideas, nothing stands in the

way of success.

A TECHNOLOGY THAT OPENS UP NEW POSSIBILITIES

The new development of the ThyssenKrupp Norte team has already

been awarded Asturia’s Innovation Prize 2002. Now the 80-meter pro-

totype is waiting for customers who are anxious to reach their destina-

tion faster but just as safely as before. 7

While the technologyis advanced, the principleis simple: Different speedscan be achieved as the tensionis changed in different partsof a chain. “What you canimagine, you can achieve,” ourengineers at ThyssenKruppNorte in Spain like to say.

112 TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

Choose online, print or DVD Three different ways to learn more about the world of ThyssenKrupp

DVD - The film about the companyInternet – Homepage www.thyssenkrupp.com

ThyssenKrupp Magazinetechforum Image brochure

To order one of our publications, please go to www.thyssenkrupp.com and click the top service bar, under “Publications”.

Publisher: ThyssenKrupp AG, Dr. Jürgen Claassen, August-Thyssen-Straße 1, 40211 Düsseldorf, Telefon: +49 211 824-0

Project Management: Dr. Heribert Klein (responsible for editorial content) • Art Director: Peter Breul

Writers: Benedikt Breith, Sebastian Groß, Dr. Inken Heeb, Alexander Schneider • Copy Editor: Michael Gavin

Picture Editor: Alexander Schneider • Layout: Esther Rodriguez

Publishing House and Editorial Address: F.A.Z.-Institut für Management-, Markt- und Medieninformationen GmbH,

Mainzer Landstraße 199, 60326 Frankfurt am Main, Telefon: +49 69 7591-0, Facsimile: +49 69 7591-1966

Managing Directors: Dr. Gero Kalt, Volker Sach, Peter Steinke

Project Management at ThyssenKrupp: Barbara Scholten

Lithography: Goldbeck System-Litho, Frankfurt am Main

Printing: SocietätsDruck, Mörfelden

Cover Photo: Claudia Kempf

The contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher. Excerpts may only be reproduced with attribution and if a sample copy is provided.

ThyssenKrupp Magazine

Citi

gate

SEA

Tobias Reuter, 10

“My dad can make two elevator cabs run separately in one shaft.”

Tobias’s father helped develop an innovative elevator system. For the first time two cabs canbe operated separately in a single shaft.

Our ideas get things moving.

Dr. Günter Reuter and his colleagues are responsiblefor a revolutionary new development – the TWINelevator. With this innovative system, two elevatorcabs travel one above the other on the same guiderail. An intelligent control system coordinates themovements of the elevator group. A four-stagesafety system guarantees that there is always aminimum safety gap between the two cabs.

Ideas like this are in demand the world over. Andthat’s another reason why ThyssenKrupp is such anattractive investment.

Visit us on the Internet: www.thyssenkrupp.com

TK

Developing the future.