Intamin

Expedition GeForce at Holiday Park, Germany

Intamin Worldwide is a designing and manufacturing company in Wollerau, Switzerland. It is best known for creating thrill rides and roller coasters worldwide. The U.S. division of the company is located in Glen Burnie, Maryland, and is headed by Sandor Kernacs. The Intamin brand name is an abbreviation for: INTernational AMusement INstallations. The company distributes approximately 5-7 roller coasters from their workshops in Switzerland and Glen Burnie each year.

Intamin is a major player in the amusement park attractions industry, supplying some 22 different styles of rides to a variety of parks. Their first roller coaster installation was The Great American Revolution, a roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in 1976. Since then they have installed a total of 70 coasters in several countries around the globe. They designed and built the first "river rapids ride" known as "Thunder River" based on the idea supplied by Bill Crandall, a past General Manager at the now defunct AstroWorld. Intamin also marketed the first Freefall (developed by Giovanola) experience and the first Drop Tower.

Products and technologies

Intamin is well known for being innovative and creative with their rides. They were some of the first to create a magnetic propulsion system (Linear induction motors/Linear Synchronous Motors) and remain one of only a handful of manufacturers continuing to use such technology on roller coasters. Intamin also created the first hydraulic launch system (also known as the "Accelerator" or "Rocket Coaster"), which is now being used to catapult roller coaster trains from 0 to speeds upwards of 128 mph (206 km/h) in a few seconds before climbing up immense heights. Furius Baco at PortAventura was their latest achievement and is Europe's fastest coaster, launching riders from 0–135 km/h (83.9 mph) in 3.5 seconds.

Intamin is also known for their massive "Mega" (Intamin's term for a hypercoaster; often considered over 200 ft/61 m) and "Giga" (over 300 ft/91 m) coasters. They have also created the "Strata Coaster" (Any coaster over 400 ft / 122 m tall). There are currently only two Strata Coasters in existence (Top Thrill Dragster at Cedar Point and Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure), both manufactured by Intamin. Top Thrill Dragster uses lapbars as the choice of restraint, allowing the rider more comfort and freedom of the upper body throughout the ride than Kingda Ka's over-the-shoulder restraint system. Mega/Giga Coasters currently occupy the top 2 spots of the Golden Ticket Awards with Millennium Force (Giga) and Superman: Ride of Steel (Mega). Also drawing much praise is the company's recent foray into the wooden roller coaster business with their "Plug and Play" models, such as Balder at Liseberg, Colossos at Heide Park, and El Toro at Six Flags Great Adventure which opened spring 2006. Unlike other traditional wood coasters, these rides use prefabricated track sections made of a high-strength wooden laminate that can be secured on-site when the superstructure is completed. This design enables the coaster to reach speeds and navigate course elements smoothly, like a steel roller coaster, while retaining the look and some of the traditional feel of common wooden coasters.

Roaring Rapids river ride at Six Flags Over Texas (2007)

Another recent roller coaster development by Intamin is the Ball Coaster, a type of Spinning roller coaster. It has individual cars, each with 8 seats, arranged in two pods coming off the sides of the car, each with 2 seats facing forwards and two facing backwards. This car is either lifted to the highest point by a conventional chain lift, or propelled around the course at a constant speed by a Linear Motor system.

Intamin is also responsible for a large number of other thrill rides. They have designed some of the largest Ferris wheels in the world, along with various types of observation towers, and currently hold the record for the world's tallest and fastest freefall ride (The Giant Drop) at Dreamworld, Australia. They also supply motion simulator technology which can be seen in many installations around the world. Intamin is also credited with the invention of the river rapids ride, though the idea was given to Intamin by Bill Crandall, a past General Manager of AstroWorld.

The company is known for being the original home to the famous (within the coaster world) Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M). The two engineers worked for Giovanola who in turn were frequently contracted by Intamin for their early stand-up roller coasters (Giovanola eventually started producing roller coasters independently). B&M broke away from Giovanola to form their own company which now supplies roller coasters as well. Similarities between the two companies are often obvious, such as the style of track used by B&M, which was used in a number of early Giovanola installations which were contracted by Intamin.

Outside the amusement realm, Intamin supplies monorail transportation systems which are used in both public transport networks and at tourist attractions across the world.

Safety Incidents

Intamin has been in the news for a number of safety-related accidents or incidents.

• In 1984, three passengers riding The Edge at Marriott's Great America were injured and hospitalized. The boys were soon after released. The ride had experienced a software malfunction that caused the ride to fall backwards down the wrong shaft.

• In May 1999, a 365 lb (165 kg) guest was unable to close his lap bar properly on the newly opened Superman Ride of Steel roller coaster at Six Flags Darien Lake and fell out of the train.

• In 1999, a 12-year-old boy fell to his death on the Drop Zone Stunt Tower at Paramount's Great America. An investigation was inconclusive and no charges were filed, but following the accident modifications were made to add redundancy to ride restraints of not just Drop Zone, but all of the Intamin Drop Towers around the world.

• In 2001 a 40-year-old woman fell from Perilous Plunge at Knotts Berry Farm. She was too large to be correctly restrained by the T-Bar, and rose out of it on the -1G 76 degree drop.

• In 2004 two incidents involving the Intamin lap bar system occurred within months of each other. The first was on Hydro, an Intamin near-vertical river plunge at Oakwood Leisure Park (Narberth, Pembrokeshire) in which a 16-year-old fell approximately 100 ft (30 m) to her death. The peculiar incident is very similar to an earlier accident on another near-vertical plunge ride, Perilous Plunge. Hydro remained closed for the rest of the park's 2004 season before reopening in 2005 with modifications that have seen the lap bar restraints replaced with "Over-the-Shoulder" restraints.

• The second incident of 2004 was on one of Intamin's mega coasters, Superman: Ride of Steel at Six Flags New England in Massachusetts. The ride, again with lap bar restraints, was dispatched with a sufferer of cerebral palsy in the front seat. According to an investigation [1], the ride operators were primarily to blame for not ensuring the man was properly secured. Intamin was also partially blamed because the ride's safety system allowed the train to be dispatched without all the restraints properly secured. Some blame was also attributed to the victim for not notifying the operators of his condition.

Intamin is now supplying rides with the more restricting OTSR (over-the-shoulder restraints) as well as the traditional lap bars for added safety.

• In June 2007, a 13-year-old girl had both of her feet severed at the ankles on Superman: Tower of Power at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom. A ride malfunction caused a cable to snap and a cord to wrap around the girl's feet, amputating both of them. She was brought to the hospital in critical condition ^[1] and the park was later fined $1,000 for not properly maintaining the ride.

• In September 2009, a cable snapped during the launch on Xcelerator at Knott's Berry Farm. A 12-year-old boy and his father were sitting in the front seats and were injured by flying debris and the snapped cable.

Notable roller coasters

Existing Intamin Roller Coasters

Gallery

Millennium Force at Cedar Point	Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure	Half Pipe at Elitch Gardens	Fahrenheit at Hersheypark
Colossus at Thorpe Park	Wicked Twister at Cedar Point	American Eagle at Six Flags Great America	California Screamin' at Disney's California Adventure Park

See also

• Incidents at Six Flags parks
• Incidents at PARC Management parks
• Incidents at Cedar Fair parks

References

External links

• Intamin (official site)
• Intamin Bahntechnik (official site of Intamin's factory in Germany)
• Intamin Ride Database (IRDB)
• Accidents involving amusement roller coasters manufactured by Intamin
• Alton Towers Secret Weapon 6 believed to be built by Intamin