Industrial gear units and comprehensive service for one of Europe's most state-of-the-art roller coasters – "The Oath of KÄRNAN" promises HANSA-PARK visitors an adrenalin-fueled XXL experience, with SEW‑EURODRIVE working behind the scenes to ensure their safety.
Further details about HANSA-PARK:
Plummeting vertically at a top speed of 127 kilometers per hour – a globally unique reverse freefall from a height of over 77 meters in the dark – "The Oath of KÄRNAN" at HANSA-PARK, near Lübeck in Germany, marks a new chapter in roller coaster history. Industrial gear units, frequency inverters, and motors from SEW‑EURODRIVE create a customized combined drive technology and service solution that ensures excellent system availability, delivers a high level of safety, and satisfies thrill-seekers.
SEW‑EURODRIVE is the right choice
The result confirms that the selected supplier – SEW‑EURODRIVE – is the right choice. We're constantly working on new attractions and are keen to continue using tried-and-tested, reliable solutions.
It's important for us to have resilient drives that operate reliably and are easy to maintain – and that's definitely the case with X series industrial gear units. We're also personally acquainted with the team taking care of us. We've been working together for decades. This collaboration is vital, because a system can't be out of action for days.
A good and reassuring feeling
I enjoy going to HANSA-PARK with my family – not just because of its numerous attractions and special magic, but also because I know for a fact that the technology undergoes regular inspections and maintenance. That gives you a good and reassuring feeling.
A roller coaster's success depends on its thrill factor, but also on customers' trust in the system, so HANSA-PARK in Sierksdorf gives high priority to operational safety. Robust, maintenance-friendly drive technology with a long service life that satisfies high safety standards was a must for "The Oath of KÄRNAN" – the new roller coaster on the shores of the Baltic.
To ensure efficient interfaces, the customer was looking for a full-service supplier for all the roller coaster's drive technology, including AC motors, industrial gear units, and frequency inverters. SEW‑EURODRIVE was chosen for its technical expertise combined with a service concept that covers the entire system life cycle – from consulting, planning, and engineering all the way through to startup and modernization.
As the Technical Office responsible for roller coaster manufacturer Gerstlauer from Münsterhausen, Augsburg took care of the design and engineering work for the drives. SEW-EURODRIVE's regional service took charge of the startup in Sierksdorf. It also maintains and repairs the drive technology as required, ensuring a rapid-response service and fast delivery of replacement parts.
"The Oath of KÄRNAN" has three trains in operation simultaneously, each of them holding 16 passengers. One is in the air, getting pulses racing and providing an adrenalin rush against a magnificent Baltic backdrop on one of Europe's largest roller coasters. Meanwhile, the other two trains with passengers either boarding or exiting the ride are at ground level, where five additional drives from SEW‑EURODRIVE are in use. The drive units, each with a power rating of 22 kilowatts, use friction wheels to transport the carriages to the next station – the chain lift.
The vertical chain lift takes the carriages to the highest point of the roller coaster. It's a truly Herculean task! A drive power of at least 300 kilowatts is required to lift a fully occupied train vertically at a speed of several meters per second. When designing the gearmotor and frequency inverter, breakaway torques that were hard to determine in advance also had to be taken into account.
The drive specialists at SEW‑EURODRIVE decided to meet this challenge by incorporating a suitable energy reserve. A 400 kilowatt AC motor was the answer. There is no motor of this size in the company's own product portfolio, so the pragmatic solution was to use a third-party product – a motor from another manufacturer with an appropriate frequency inverter. The experts at SEW‑EURODRIVE made a point of being involved in the motor-gear unit combination's engineering, installation, startup, and subsequent maintenance.
An X3 KS 200 industrial gear unit was used for speed-torque conversion. This three-stage bevel-helical gear unit with solid shaft has a nominal torque of 79 kilonewtons. X series industrial gear units support virtually any mounting position and shaft arrangement. Equipping the drive solution geared to the customer's specific requirements with a dedicated gear oil cooling system provided the finishing touch.
Only highly resilient products with a long service life were used in "The Oath of KÄRNAN" so as to ensure system and operational safety. HANSA-PARK also stipulated that all components should have a service life and operating period of ten years.
The X3 industrial gear unit's high power density makes it ideal for these requirements. Incredibly robust and reliable, its compact size delivers weight benefits that also have a positive impact on the budget. The incorporated energy reserve has advantages, too, because it is never necessary to operate the system in the taxing "red zone" – something that helps improve both service life and availability. As far as energy consumption is concerned, using IE2 energy efficiency class motors compensates for the increased consumption resulting from the generously dimensioned motor design.
Efforts were also made to spare the ears of visitors to HANSA-PARK. Thanks to the X series industrial gear unit's low-noise gearing, the drive technology operates extremely quietly. The frequency inverters are also geared to quiet operation – clocking them at 6 kilohertz minimizes the noise generated by the motor, which HANSA-PARK visitors greatly appreciate.
SEW‑EURODRIVE's Life Cycle Services include continuous technical system monitoring and support. Little details often have a big impact in this regard. At HANSA-PARK, for example, a particular point was made of ensuring the standardized, systematic design of control cabinets. This means HANSA-PARK engineers always know which function lies behind each door, which reduces both the complexity and the amount of work involved in the daily safety check on the drives. SEW‑EURODRIVE also offers support if required, with a rapid-response service and quick delivery of replacement parts. This is vital because, as everyone knows, having a ride out of action during the season leads to financial losses and frustrated visitors.
In addition, the company's service team performed an examination with an inspection scope on the gear units at the end of the season. The first step in this multi-stage process was to collect data on site and check the feasibility by asking, for example, whether the gear units are actually suitable for an examination with an inspection scope. This was followed by a detailed requirements analysis and conceptual design. All the work was carried out after the park closed in November. It was a rapid, uncomplicated process, with the X series industrial gear units used in "The Oath of KÄRNAN" demonstrating how easy they were to maintain once installed. The data was analyzed in Bruchsal, where the product engineers carefully checked the gear oil samples and the images from the examination with an inspection scope. This resulted in a big thumbs up, with no particular irregularities identified.
