During our coverage of the Euro Attractions Show 2011 in London, we stopped by the booth of Maurer Söhne, the German rollercoasters manufacturer especially known in the world for the quality and originality of its rides, including the Spinning Coasters and the X-Car Coasters.
We met Ralf Reifferscheidt, Managing Director, and Torsten Schmidt, Design & Marketing, of the "Amusement Rides" division of the company. They were both very happy explaining to NewsParcs that they had a lot of new innovations this year.
FlyingLaunch Coaster : Freischütz at Bayern Park
“Our first highlight of the year is definitely our new FlyingLaunch Coaster that we presented last year in Rome and Orlando. We delivered the first one at Bayern Park in Bavaria, Germany and the feedbacks are all positive “ explains Torsten Schmidt. “Lots of our customers visiting Bayern Park have been very impressed. Coasters club as well, and we also had good feedbacks from the press ” adds Ralf Reifferscheidt.
This new concept of the FlyingLaunch Coaster is simple : based on the X-Car Launch Coaster, Maurer Söhne has decided to remove the brakes at the end of the track to use the LSM (Linear Synchronous Motor) system of the launch to stop the train. “So we can storage the energy for the next launch with supercapacitors, or we can also relaunch the train for a second ride without stopping. Beside the ecological point of view, it is also a very fun ride because you can do 2 or 3 times the coaster on a run, but no more because it’s still extreme experience of course ! ” states Torsten Schmidt.
Ralf Reifferscheidt adds « In our company, we believe at the corporate social responsibility and that’s why we decided to find solutions to reduce our impact on the environment, and we invented this system of saving energy and go green… We are the first rollercoasters manufacturer that turns its mind on the energy savings, and not only the costs or the accelerations of the rides ! We are very proud that we have suppliers which worked with us on this concept and help us to realize it. ”
And what about potential customers ? “We already have another FlyingLaunch Coaster project scheduled to open in 2013 in a new park at Ningbo, nearby Shanghai in China. The ride will be similar to Bayern Park, but a little bit different as well ! ”
Rainbow MagicLand : Shock & Cagliostro
In addition to the FlyingLaunch, Maurer Söhne has also delivered a Launch Coaster and an indoor Spinning Coaster for the brand new Rainbow MagicLand theme park nearby Rome, Italy. “Shock is a very interesting Launch Coaster because we use a 6 persons X-Car, a train that rides very well on compact curves. The layout has been designed to be an experience between high-speed, compressions and airtimes, and we integrated our non-inverted loop. We are very satisfied of the result, a good LSM system, amazing figures and a wonderful view all over the park “ comments Torsten Schmidt. “We are really proud that our coaster is the icon of this park ”.
Concerning the Spinning Coaster “Cagliostro”, Maurer Sôhne confirmed us that the park was still working on a theming for the next seasons. “It’s like a darkride, it’s really dark inside but it needs some improvements. We think the park is working on and will add some special effects in the future. The thing interesting in this coaster is the fact that you go outside of the building in a short curve, and everybody can see what kind of experience it is. I like it a lot !” comments Ralf Reifferscheidt.
Bobbejaanland : DIZZ
In Belgium, the German manufacturer has delivered another Spinning Coaster to Bobbejaanland (DIZZ). Ralf Reifferscheidt explains : “At the beginning of the design process, the supports of the first part of the track - including the lift hill and the first drop - were supposed to be centralized in one main footer, in a sort of backbone. Our goal was to reduce the impact of the rollercoaster on the ground, but we noted that this ground was too soft due to the lake beside. So we had to change our foundations... But the idea can be used for future projects, and it makes us more competitive because less foundations means reduced costs and reduced impact on the ground. ” He adds : “We also heard that some visitors complained about the trim brakes. The park didn’t complain about, they are very happy of how the ride is, but we will send somebody to check it out and make some arrangements in order to have a better ride experience next season.”
SkyLoop
But the main highlight of the year for Maurer Söhne is probably the rising of the SkyLoop rollercoaster. “We opened our first SkyLoop in China at World Joyland, our first SkyLoop in Australia at Dreamworld and a third SkyLoop in Europe in Finland at Linnanmäki. All went into operations in a short term, because it’s now a Maurer Sohne standard ” states Ralf Reifferscheidt. “We have 3 more SkyLoop projects for China next year, including one at Happy Valley Wuhan”. Torsten Schmidt adds: “Our SkyLoop is our favorite product at that time… This ride is amazing, the experience is extreme, it’s really an icon for an amusement park ! They can theme this ride very easily and they only need a compact area of 60x15 meters to build it ! We can even go higher at the discretion of the customer… ”
Looking at 2012 and the future, Maurer Söhne is confident “We are busy, at least for next year ! We will open the SkyLoop and another Launch Coaster, same model as in Drievlied (NL) at Wuhan, plus the two others SkyLoop projects and the FlyingLaunch at Ningbo… ” explains Ralf Reifferscheidt. China definitively seems to be an attractive market for the company.
Others innovations
Our last questions concerned two innovations that were displayed at EAS last year, but missing in London : the LED wheel and the 4-seats X-Train. Ralf Reifferscheidt explains “The light wheels will be installed in 2012 on Freischultz at Bayern Park as well as on Ukko at Linnamäki. These wheels are now ready for daily operations, and we are convinced that they will work perfectly even in hard conditions. Concerning the 4-seats X-train coaster, we are still working on… but as you probably noticed, one of our competitor has made a good copy of it and will deliver this train to a park in United States… so, we think of how to react ! ”
“Forces in Motion”, the new slogan of Maurer Sôhne, is fitting perfectly at the ambition, and the innovations that the company is looking for ! They are now willing to meet the world industry at the next IAAPA Attractions Expo in Orlando next month…
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