Magazin Bewegung Eng PDF

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Motion
TK
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Magazin
TK
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If 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
Citigate SEA
Tino Schlegel, 13
My dad makes electronic

steering wheels.
Tinos father is helping build a steer-by-wire

system that could one day replace the traditional
mechanical linkage between steering wheel and
road wheels.
Defining technological progress.
Markus Schlegel and his colleagues are working on
a new kind of steering system. The innovative system
offers clear benefits in terms of crash safety, functionality and fuel consumption.
Innovations like these make us into one of the worlds
most successful automotive suppliers. Another reason
why ThyssenKrupp is such an attractive investment.
Visit us on the Internet: www.thyssenkrupp.com
Developing the future.
TK
Going down new avenues

By Prof. Dr. Ekkehard D. Schulz,
Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG
ou cannot look into the future, but you can lay foundations for the
future for the future can be built. It wasnt a management consultant who said this, but the poet Antoine de Saint-Exupry, 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 previously 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 ThyssenKrupps 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, quickly 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 judgement 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 cutting edge of technological innovation. We thus follow in the footsteps of
such company forefathers as August Thyssen and Alfred Krupp. Exact-
TK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |
ly 150 years ago, Alfred Krupp, for example, obtained a patent for a revolutionary invention the production of a seamless rolled train wheel.
Fueled by an inventive and entrepreneurial spirit, he, too, thereby instilled considerable movement in Germany in the phase of early industrialization.
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 dont 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
TK Magazine
58 Poseidon,
the worlds first
water roller coaster,
is one very wild ride.
The engineers are
also impressed.
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 streets
Sophisticated shock absorbers from ThyssenKrupp Bilstein
20 Gliding up the mountain
Taking visitors up to legendary Toledo via escalator
28 Cruising in style across the deep blue sea
Blohm + Voss turns out the ultimate in yachts
34 Making it together
ThyssenKrupp Automotive could almost build an entire car
38 Keeping dry, down below
Copenhagens new subway presented a big waterproofing challenge
42 Measuring time and quality
The 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 Zeno
The ancient Greek was the philosopher of non-movement
94 As a rowing cox,
Stefan Lier needs to be
in total control:
He knows the 8-man crew
is relying totally on him.
4 PUR is a top German rock group

and an advertising partner of
ThyssenKrupp. Meet lead singer and
songwriter Hartmut Engler.
54 There is no movement,
according to the ancient
philosopher Zeno. He even
had a theory to prove it.
2 | 2003 Contents
66 Alfred Krupp had to

overcome major obstacles
to build his vast steel-making
empire. One of his most
important discoveries
was made 150 years ago.
58 Steel is one secret behind a unique roller coaster

Keeping thrill-seekers safe means exhaustive testing and design
66 An enthusiast of the rings
Alfred Krupp invented the seamless train wheel
74 Keeping things turning in industry
Big rings and bearings are Rothe Erdes speciality
78 Still a logistically complicated concept
Efficient steel making is done in steps
84 Longer rails a key to Britains new high-speed train service
State-of-the-art tracks are used in the Channel Tunnel Rail Link
88 Not the usual ups and downs
The new ISIS elevator uses an entirely new concept
92 Getting to the goal even faster
Simultaneous Engineering saves time and money
94 Backing the winners in sports and education
The up 2 program is helping student rowers like Stefan Lier
102 Scotlands beautiful, unshakeable landmark
To 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
42 People buying a Rolex expect

the very best and that also goes
for the steel in this luxury watch.
34 Makers of parts
and components for
vehicles are increasingly
becoming systems
partners for the big car
manufacturers.
Come with me
to Never-Never Land
Much has happened. Thats
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 tours partner
By Heribert Klein | Photos Claudia Kempf
Imagination holds the key

Eyes begin to shine
when Hartmut Englers
fans meet him. He just
takes them along
and lets them dream
and forget everything,
for a quiet moment.
f they have achieved what society calls success, it is above all because 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 Englers position right at the top away from him: He is
the lead singer and main writer for PUR, probably Germanys most popular rock band. The success of the five-member bands 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 groups new album, being released at
the same time, is expected to be a big seller.
And why not? The groups 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 higher 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 eigne Reise,
Der Eintritt kostet den Verstand,
Und tus auf Deine Weise,

Deine Phantasie schenkt Dir ein Land,
Das Abenteuerland
Come along,
Come with me to Never-Never Land,
On the path youve chosen,
Come with me to Never-Never Land
Its 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 Engler himself is not some distant figure remote from the concerns of ordinary 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; Engler is unlikely to startle, or to make any sweeping political statements.
But can this singer born in 1961 be simply described as a member of the Golf Generation, a term used in Germany Golf referring
to the car model, not the sport to describe young people more interested in careers and lifestyle than in broad political issues? He does belong 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 expelled, you hold on even tighter to home. Maybe we were, subconsciously, brought up under this thinking.
That doesnt 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 PURs case the southern German state of
Baden-Wrttemberg, was very important for our band and its development.
Enough said; lets leave the rest to music

8
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.
I watched many leave; I usually stayed

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 interviews, 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 isnt that everyones 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 dont 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, Engler 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 weit nicht, ob ich bin, wie ich scheine
Du weit nicht, wie ich gerne wr,
Du weit auch nicht, wie ich dies and das meine
Denn alles geb ich nicht her
ThyssenK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |
You dont know if I am how I appear,

You dont know how Id like to be,
And you dont know how I mean this and that,
Because I dont 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 treatment by parts of the press as confirmation that society hasnt really
changed since Roman times: People want bread and circuses, and in
todays society that means humiliating a celebrity at regular intervals.
Hell accept the lesson, as he learned from other painful experiences, 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 Englers 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 (PURs creative musical spirit Ingo Reidl studied piano at a university-equivalent music school, while Engler studied German), but they
knew all along that they really wanted to strike out on their own as musicians, Engler recalls. We always felt like adventurers and simply
wanted to make music. We werent the types who let bosses boss them
around. None of us did military service. We only got our first record contract 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 Germanys 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
todays, 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
11
Just a moment ago, I was still playing Indians

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 naturally, but was purposely imposed by the writers. Engler sees the problem
in dialectical terms. Naturally he would be happy if PURs commercial
success was matched with the kind of critical acclaim heaped on the extremely popular German singer Herbert Grnemeyer. 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
doesnt 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 permanently 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 musicians have evolved into a flourishing musical enterprise. In the early
days all band income was divided eight ways, to give the stage manager, 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 bandmates 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 didnt have a partner like ThyssenKrupp, the
price for tickets would have to be significantly higher.
PUR opted to seek business sponsorship several years ago, although admittedly without a clear concept at the time: A savings bank
along with a private TV stations and companies producing shoes, mineral water and beer were all among the early round of sponsors. About
two years ago PUR opted for a clearer message, and made Thyssen
12
Krupp its exclusive partner. A rock band and a technology concern

might, on the surface, seem a curious partnership, but talking with Engler it becomes clear that an almost familial feeling has developed between both sides. Engler in particular recalls a concert given by the band
to ThyssenKrupp employees at Dortmunds Westfalenhalle in November
2001, when ThyssenKrupp Chairman Ekkehard Schulz spoke of the special importance of confidence and optimism in politically and economically difficult times. Engler is also impressed with the current Group advertising 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 together, 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. Thats why ThyssenKrupp is the ideal partner for us
and its 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
mankinds 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
Schlft ein Lied in allen Dingen,
Die da trumen 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.
Hartmut Engler was happy

to be photographed in the TWIN
elevator in Stuttgart for the
image campaign of
ThyssenKrupp. I think its great
that the company advertises
and stirs emotions, he says.
Photo DaimlerChrysler
By Benedikt Breith | Photos Dieter Rchel

here 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 Rebhan, a wiry engineer in his late 30s. He works for ThyssenKrupp
Bilstein, part of ThyssenKrupp Automotive, in the village of Mandern in
western Germanys Hunsrck 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 complicated for any layperson to understand. For example: The car doesnt rest on the shock absorbers, but on the springs. The dampers prevent the car from jumping across the street like a young deer.
The standard setters from the Rhineland division of TV, a major
German technical testing service, phrase it even more simply: Shock
absorbers ensure contact with the road. Sound road contact is a precondition 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 technical standard setters from the Rhineland is their defined goal: Reducing the vehicles vibrations to ensure maximum, continuous contact between the wheels and the road.
Experts say that shock

absorbers prevent the car
from jumping across the
street like a young deer.
The dampers reduce the
vehicles vibrations as
much as possible.
Damping the vibrations

Drivers glide along, thanks to ThyssenKrupp Bilstein shock absorbers
15
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 vibrations, 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 inevitably 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 cars 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 vehicle 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 todays concept of automobile comfort 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 vehicle. The skyhook system regulates the damping force based on complicated regular algorithms; in other words, the active system amounts
Driving as though
in a vehicle on a hook
16
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 increasingly 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 meticulousness 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 vibration 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 pneumatEngineers 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.
17
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
Switching the
chassis to soft
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. Additional 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 Bilsteins
suspension magic: Maximum air filling means softer basic suspension,
while reduced filling guarantees a harder, sportier drive. All performance graphs are checked at the end and have to be found to be optimal before an air suspension chassis can leave the plant.
According to Rebhan, the sales potential of such adaptable systems is high, maybe even immense. And theres 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 different 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 Mercedes E-Class the Starship Enterprise. You simply cant 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 RhineRuhr 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
7
obviously very creative idyll.
Developers say vibration
dampers are complex units
consisting of a multitude
of individual parts. A wheel
could not accommodate
any more technology at
this point in time.
19
A new view
of La Mancha
In Toledo, ThyssenKrupp
escalators carry people up the
famous mountainside
By Sebastian Gro | Photos Ayuntamiento de Toledo
20
The walkways help solve a

logistical problem: they provide
an environmentally friendly
means of transporting
thousands of tourists to Toledos
historic city center without
disturbing the peace of its narrow streets. The concept even
won a special prize.
21
Visions turned into reality

The walkways are divided
into several sections in a zigzag
alignment. This way, users
hardly notice that they are
traveling up 36 meters. During
the ride, though, they can enjoy
a great view over La Mancha,
Don Quixotes home.
The construction
planners goal: the
walkways should blend
into their surroundings
as much as possible.
Planners had to solve
manifold problems,
from the soft ground on
the mountainside to the
folded support wall.
f 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 todays 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 thats where the dream ends, for reality at least in the eyes of Toledo 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 Toledo lures crowds like no other place in the Spanish region of Castille.
What do they hope to see, feel, experience here? Apparently, the transitions 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 Occident, have crossed here. Like Don Quixote, they arrived and left
through the Arco de la Sangre, sights set on the Alcazar, the citys symbol. Visions can become reality. We have prize-winning visions is the
Walkways for the great outdoors
25
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 historic center was facing collapse under the pressure, until a novel solution 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 calculated from the bottom step.
For the engineers, a major problem was a slope where sufficiently stable ground did not start until a depth of 30 meters, which meant
26
that drilling poles had to be driven deep into the earth to hold the 120centimeter (48-inch) bottom plate in place. Then there was a considerable psychological problem: Toledos city officials werent 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 broken-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 planners contributed a lot of brain power to tackle the challenge of equipping 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 mountain. The result: the six sections of escalator, in sets of three alongside
each other, now help solve the citys 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 visitors, 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
The walkways in Toledo

can transport up to 40,000 people
on one weekend. In the eyes
of the city fathers, the construction
experiment was thus a huge
success. Toledos historic city
center has been protected.
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 Toledo. Even off-season, they still transport 5,000 people daily. On weekends, 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 gradually (and to keep the noise down to 60 decibels). Visitors reach the top
near the imposing historic building of La Diputacin.
Naturally, the escalators are monitored by the usual state-of-theart control systems, and the technical interior drive and braking systems 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 ensures the sustainability of this system and saves energy; indeed, from
a transport policy perspective, the entire concept has a sustainable effect: the historic city, a UNESCO world cultural heritage site, is spared
an onslaught of cars and their fumes, people can move freely in the narrow, 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 windmills, 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 Quixotes faithful but weak
horse. She would doubtless have preferred gliding on an escalator to
7
trudging up the steep hillside to the gates of Bisagra or Cambrn.
27
Thanks to 3-D virtual

reality on the computer,
customers get an
early impression of
what their boat will look
like in reality.
By Sebastian Gro | Photos Blohm + Voss
Full steam ahead

Blohm + Voss builds
cruise ships and Mega Yachts
unique creations that are
thought up on the computer
before they take shape
Electronic simulation
turns a cross-wire model
into a finished ship. This
entails altered production
processes and reduces
throughput times.
Computer-based shipbuilding
A dream cruiser
for the oceans
The Eco is a technological work of wonder as well as a luxury vessel.
ince time immemorial, man has striven to overcome his own limitations. 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 Lbeck merchant, and the blacksmiths son Ernst Voss.
Times have changed, but the names have stayed the same, as
anyone visiting Hamburgs lively port can see: Stand on the famous
Landungsbrcke 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 Hamburgs Free Port. The venerable towering cranes stand next to the noless-imposing covered dry docks where ships are built for both military and civilian needs. Mega Yachts, cruise ships (fast monohulls),
frigates and corvettes are all part of Blohm + Vosss offering.
A LOW-COST YACHT ISNT 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 engineer who works in civilian ships acquisition at the shipyard. Each one
of our boats is built individually, he says. Indeed the ancestral portrait gallery, the colorful collection of accurate scale models of every
ship that has ever been built by Blohm + Voss, shows that in the civilian area at least this is definitely true. Outstanding examples of individuality are the Mega Yachts, which carry names such as the
32
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 details and build the yacht accordingly, Josten explains.
Uniqueness presupposes extraordinary, unmistakable elements
which is why it is so important that the shipyards longstanding experience and technological innovation in systems and production processes flow into these complex systems. These include, for example, diesel
engines, gas turbines or even water jets, as well as improved production 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 construction groups.
The customer attains the best product that is technically conceivable, at a relatively low cost, is how Josten describes Blohm +
Vosss sound business strategy.
Low-cost does not mean cheap, of course, but what are the limits 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 capable of 21 knots, is a technical miracle and a luxury means of transport
to boot.
The adventure-seeking poet Antoine de Saint-Exupry would not
have been inspired by a walk through a modern shipyard. But his ad-
It takes a mouseclick to wander through this hall.
The Savarona, 124 meters long, is the worlds biggest private yacht.
vice If you want to build a ship, dont rally the men to get wood, distribute responsibilities and divide tasks, but instead teach men the
yearning for the wide, endless sea is not really practical as a management 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 locate the pool area. The entire ship is pre-built by a computer, he says,
obviously satisfied with this technological achievement.
have both a high payload and a high service speed. This provides individual leeway to the customer. While some customers wish to wander the seas at a speed of 18 knots, or show off a graceful yacht in
the worlds most beautiful harbors, Josten can also tell of other customers 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 really 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 builders 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, todays newly built ships do not slide down an inclined way
into the water. When built on a modern dry dock, the entire ship is immersed 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.
LIGHT CONSTRUCTION EXTENDS INDIVIDUAL LEEWAY

The advantages for manufacturers and clients are obvious: Thanks to
such tools as electronic simulation, clients can make important decisions early. This is important because changes are best avoided during
the construction phase. This reduces the project phase which, according to Jostens 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 lightweight construction of the ships body, the ships built at Blohm + Voss
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 ser7
vice as quickly as possible.
33
Future in
motion
In fact, ThyssenKrupp Automotive
could build its own car almost
By Benedikt Breith | Illustrations Andreas Weishaupt
34
hen the 60th annual International Motor Show opens in Frankfurt on Sept. 11 it will become clear once again why ThyssenKrupp 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 geographical 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 the
The demands on systems

suppliers are great. We need
to offer car makers
intelligent management
at every step, from the
development through to the
manufacturing of parts and
components.
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 assemble their responses as though each was a piece of one huge puzzle? Hardly: The answer to this question can only come with a systematic 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 Powertrain. 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 activities in the Body unit include intelligent BIW (Body-in-White) production management, body design, virtual simulation of production equipment 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 intrusion beams and fender. And thats not all; there is also the body
frame, B-pillars, the wing and the trunk lid. And even that is not an exhaustive list. ThyssenKrupp Automotives people remain at the forefront of technology in the sector. Cooperation with all the major car
For modern car companies,

the support and cooperation
of outside suppliers is
essential. No modern vehicle
can be built without flexibility
from everyone involved in
the entire design and
manufacturing process.
ThyssenKrupp Automotive
works closely with every
major car maker in the world.
Our components can be found
in more than 60 new models
that are coming on
to the market in 2003.
35
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 behind the scenes at the IAA to use the German acronym for the International 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 chassis systems such as complete ready-to-install axles for both the front
and rear ends and cab suspension systems for leading European truck
manufacturers. Theres 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, meaning 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 marketplace and regulators sets increasingly greater emphasis on flexibility,
beginning with design and assembly ideas and ranging through materials 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 continually explores new ways to work to the maximum within them. And, at the
Technical progress shows the way
Outside suppliers
are now expected to deliver
much more than parts.
Today, car makers want
complete, ready-to-install
systems.
36
ThyssenKrupp Automotives
three business units Chassis,
Body and Powertrain are
in motion around the world.
Altogether, we have more than
120 production locations in
17 different countries.
same time, always sees the car the way the driver does. That, ultimately, 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 Powertrain unit combines our capabilities in the fields of drivetrain and steering. 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 crankshafts, as basic parts or in ready-to-install units, for all types of engines. We are also the world leader in assembled camshafts. Cylinder
head systems and covers, conrods, transmission cases and gear components 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 producing 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, turning 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
7
they are not overtaken by the wheel of time.
Giving lots of attention

to even the smallest detail
is the key to success
for 38,425 employees
of ThyssenKrupp Automotive
around the world.
37
Experts in the underworld

Mobile man goes underground.
To make sure that his feet
stay dry, plastic welders from
Schmutz GmbH insulate the
tunnels with special foil
By Alexander Schneider
Photo Torben Reitzel
he 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 castles 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 Ltschberg tunnels are
only the most spectacular examples of a mobile societys increasing intrusions into
the underworld.
Per Knig 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 tunnel. 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 1960s, people still believed that reinforced concrete would resist
dampness, but that soon proved to be an illusion, explains tunnel expert Knig.
Many old tunnels are having to be renewed at great expense because water has penetrated the concrete.
This underground reality means that the concrete tubes or shafts that are channeling rail traffic are being given a sort of plastic canopy that serves as a water-resistant cladding, which is the specialty of Knig 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 surrounds the construction.
FUN UNDERGROUND: COPENHAGENS 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 running underneath the Danish capital since last October, the first opportunity for the
citys 600,000 inhabitants and its many visitors to enjoy the convenience of underground 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 withstand water pressure of up to three bar from all sides.
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,
Knig explains. Sometimes it came, sometimes it didnt. The first shaft was flooded three times. At times, we
had to work with a raft there.
As many as 20 employees from Schmutz GmbHs
tunnel service unit insulated three stops and 14 emergency 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. Thats when the concrete can be molded into place.
Welding plastic correctly takes, above all, a lot of
experience, says Knig. He definitely has this experience: 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 Knig 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 insulation of some 3.5 million square meters (almost 38
million square feet) of tunnel walls, drinking water stor-
The art of
heating plastic
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).
40
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 special 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 Knig. Thats why weve 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 between the foil and the concrete, with knobs to ensure there is a gap between the different 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 injected 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 Knig 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 Germanys Rhine-Ruhr region, also require all the skills of Knigs 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 insulation 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 welding is just starting.
Since everything has been prepared perfectly, it looks rather simple: two plastics welders stand on a scaffolding, which reaches almost to the ceiling of the roughly 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
them together with a double seam. After only a few minutes, 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 compressed 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 together, says Knig, casting a critical eye toward two
workers from another company who are welding scaffolding 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 Knig 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 didnt
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, because 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 underground work sites across Europe well into the future. 7
Photos Wolfgang Kller
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 its done.
41
A stainless reputation
ThyssenKrupp Nirosta
supplies particularly fine steel
to Swiss watchmaker Rolex
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-meterlong steel strips.
From exciting car races

to extreme mountain hikes
the watch with the crown
is always part of it. And this
includes the special steel
made at the Nirosta plant in
Dahlerbrck.
ime marches on, but a Rolex runs and runs and keeps on running.
Attached to their owners wrists, Rolex watches are taken to
stormy summits, across turbulent seas and, yes, through the rigors 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 question 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 Floridas east coast,
and has a distinguished tradition: As long ago as the early 20th century the birthplace of speed the proud name given to the coastal resort 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 marketing, 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 extreme athletic achievements were still far from common, especially for
women. For one of Gleitzes 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 Londons 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 Gleitzes wrist, an Oyster, had been unaffected by the
Channels 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 Germanys Franconia region, had
reached a key goal: manufacturing a chronograph that would prove its
quality in extreme situations. Wilsdorf had already managed a clockmaker in London since 1905, which he renamed Rolex in 1908, but
only with his bold 1927 marketing initiative did he make his big breakthrough. In the meantime, the company had relocated to Geneva, although its clockworks had always been assembled by Swiss specialists.
Wilsdorfs watches were supposed to represent the extraordinary,
using state-of-the-art technology to measure time with complete reliability and total precision. And indeed they did: In 1953, when Sir Edmund 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 submersible, 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 worlds 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 watchmaker has had to make continuous advances in technology and mate-
The material fits

the Rolex myth
48
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 chromium-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 particularly 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 Dahlerbrck, east of Dsseldorf, were able to come up with a material 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 between three possible materials because ThyssenKrupp Nirosta continues to develop its products in close cooperation with the watchmaker.
It may not be obvious at the first glance, but its 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 materials development with Rolex from the very beginning. Now he is
passing on his experience to his designated successor, Schael. Naturally, 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 imperative 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 Dahlerbrck, 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
7
steel.
Photos Karsten Enderlein
Its not just any steel:

Precision strip from Dahlerbrck
meets the high standards set by
a watchmaking company that
makes no compromises. Precision
in the finished product requires
no less from the materials.
49
You recently used the term pillarization syndrome, and said that as a
result of it nothing was moving in Germany and the country was suffering. What did you mean by this syndrome?
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?
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 overcome. 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 certain paralysis. There is too little experience going across all three areas.
In our company we work differently: A regular, institutionalized job rotation of our employees through the different business units both inland
and abroad is very positive in terms of their personal development.
Im 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 isnt
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 responsibility of the lawmakers.
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 country would be limited through decentralized structures. This was absolutely legitimate at the time. Today, however, a new framework is necessary 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.
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? Thats why the system is going in circles,
and why theres nothing to shake the country out of its complacency.
Former German President Roman Herzog has argued that in Germany
we dont have a knowledge problem but an implementation problem.
We have to bring
movement into thinking
An interview with Prof. Dr. Ekkehard D. Schulz,
Chairman of the Executive Board of ThyssenKrupp AG
Photos Marc Darchinger
50
As the head of one of the biggest technology groups in the country, do you share this opinion?
Herzog is absolutely right. Figuratively speaking, all our knowledge 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 administration. 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 technology 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 standard in the country is high, so many people ask, What do we need
more technology for? Were doing fine. Every new technology involves 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
51
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 present much more long-term danger for the environment than do the risks
involved with nuclear power. Whats 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 standards 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 wouldnt make such a blanket assertion. Certainly, not everyone has
the talent for natural sciences, since to become a scientist is a question 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 dont need naysayers but people who are ready to say, innovation means investment, and I am
prepared to invest and thereby have new products to offer. The majority of people in the country think differently. They want the amenities 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 technology 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 dont 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
dont 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 ones own area and is constantly prepared
to exchange knowledge with others. This is the only way you can determine 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 employees dont follow their lead.
We cant stand still
52
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 universities of applied technology, and with those that we think have
the best fit with us the ones in Aachen, Berlin, Bochum, Darmstadt, Dresden, Dortmund, Hamburg and Karlsruhe we have partnerships that have led to very concrete programs. When the students 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 society, you try to motivate your employees that only action and motion
can lead to success for a company?
We cant 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 compliment the current German government; its steps have been small,
but they are in the right direction. To me its 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. Thats a message we have to get out, both inside the country and abroad.
The interview was conducted by Heribert Klein.
53
hen exactly he lived is not known. The only clue is that we know
he caused a commotion among Greeces 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.
Zenos particular strong point were his comparisons, so simple
that anyone could follow them and still not detect the flaw in his reasoning. 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 Zenos ruse worked. Put simply, Zenos 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 Zenos reasoning in his piece, Physics lectures on nature, although he admitted openly that Zenos argumentation on movement
would cause anybody eager to solve it considerable headache. Put derisively, Zenos 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 something, 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, Zenos 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
By Sebastian Gro | Illustrations Tobias Wandres
The race between Achilles

and the tortoise yields
no result. The strong runner
Achilles will never catch up
with the tortoise, whose lead
will not get smaller
at any point in time.
54
The philosopher Zeno

remained a phenomenon.
In his paradoxes he concluded
that there is no such thing
as movement a thesis
that has kept philosophers
busy 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 connection 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 hasnt 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 opportunity 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 consisting of different instants, and that the individual instants can be divided infinitesimally with the inherently infinitesimal division taking
place in a limited moment of time, thus making this basically impossible all of this sounds only too logical, but in reality is part of an atomistic view of the world. In reality, it is engaged in border-crossing between 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 inspired 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 within the framework of the continuum of movement.
EVERYTHING IS IN FLUX
More recently, brain researchers such as Munichs Ernst Pppel have
addressed the question, Does reality have a duration? What does
now mean, what does simultaneous mean, or, to use St. Augustines 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 Pppels research results, the human brain as mans
central steering mechanism does have an idea of the present. He discovered in various experiments that the brain works in units of time of
at most three seconds. This time interval is reproduced, in ever new intervals 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 Zenos eyes, the flying

arrow actually did not
move. For the distance it
has to cover, and the time
at its availability are
divided into infintesimal
instants. Only Aristotle was
able to unveil Zenos error.
intervals through pauses the intervals between pauses range between two and three seconds, and then the so-called indifference point
is reached.
Pppels 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 predefined shape.
So everything is in flux after all, as the pre-Socratic thinker Heraclitus 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 movement 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 constructive manner. If this is one of the truths that can be drawn from a
study of Zenos theses, we should be grateful to him for his dialectic
7
trains of thought.
Standing still,
but as fast
as a flying arrow
Resting on pillars of steel

The worlds first water roller coaster is called Poseidon
By Heribert Klein | Photos Michael Wissing
The pylons of the Poseidon

water roller coaster reach
up nearly 30 meters.
Supported by a mountain of
curved rails and steel supports,
Poseidon is one of the major
attractions of the Europapark
amusement park in Rust,
near Freiburg.
ts right at the end that the tension really mounts at Europapark, Germanys biggest amusement park: Surely the boat we are traveling in
isnt 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 thats 20 meters per second 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
Free-fall rides
Pure action is the motto that the creator uses for this patented, innovative 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.
61
The construction steels

that ThyssenKrupp Stahl makes
for the Poseidon have to be
extremely homogenous.
Only thus can the Poseidons
riders be guaranteed the
level of safety they have a right
to 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 closer 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 complicated arrangement of curved rails and steel supports.
A MIXTURE OF BOAT AND ROLLER COASTER
Shooting down on steel
62
ThyssenKrupp Steel is the producer of all these weight-bearing parts, for

which absolute reliability, leading to total safety, is essential. The building steel that we use must have a very high degree of homogeneity, explains Georg Behringer, the development director at Mack Rides. A quiet
man who explains the complex technical demands of roller-coaster construction with great clarity, he has worked at Mack Rides for 20 years.
There is almost nothing here that can be considered standard equipment, so a very large proportion of it must be hand-produced, he points
out. The know-how required for a water-coaster is very extensive and detailed. The vessel itself is a combination of boat and roller-coaster car,
Behringer explains. From the point of view of the geometry, the wheelbase 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 Europaparks decision to
name its water-coaster creation Poseidon, but Behringer is less interested in that side of it than in talking about the director of Germanys
old Imperial Railroad, August Whler, whose Whler curve is a standard 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 Whler curve checks for the start of a crack.
With a coaster like the Poseidon there are highly dynamic demands, 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 Whler
curves procedure; the authorities dont allow anything else. The security 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 excellent 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 combinations 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 climbing, higher and higher, and at the top you are treated to a wonderful
panorama reaching across the nearby Rhine River to the mountains of
Frances Alsace region. But there isnt 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
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.
Let the fun begin

64
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 its 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 riding a roller-coaster is more comfortable than ever, even if the speeds
are higher. We can form the curve in the steel differently. The calculations 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 TV technical standard in use in Germany 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, seamless 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, absolutely 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 architect. 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 construction is something that most of the riders at Europapark hardly stop
to consider. They are interested in one thing above all: The wild sensation at the end and the gigantic splash that will send up a big wall of
water (but hopefully wont get them wet) as they ponder the world, both
7
mythical and modern, of Poseidon.
65
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
he mighty, crashing sound of the massive steam hammer makes

a particularly powerful impression. Its 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 dont think it did, knowing what we know about Alfred
Krupp. So lets take our knowledge of him and imagine a trip back in
time, to the city of Essen, to visit one of the most important industrialists 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 factory that he calls, according to the convention of his time, his establishment. The reception room is elegant, and includes busts of the German 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 Krupps realm. Thought out by
him, committed to paper in plans of his own, a sort of lifetime achievement 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 forehead. He is dressed in a green tailcoat (the so-called Chasse tailcoat),
68
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 comparison 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 visitors 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 except the melting building with the ovens he has had very bad experiences with that, he explains. Workers, that were he cant find another 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
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 wasnt 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 establishment, 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. Slling was a silent partner for
certain years, but he wasnt a co-owner!
To have to fight your way through life, at least at crucial periods,
leaves its mark. Even if he doesnt wander through his workshops as
much as he used to, Krupp still hasnt 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 doesnt 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
isnt 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 Feuerbach, dont 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
We have lived
through 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.
69
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 childrens laced boots and everybodys 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 didnt 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 wasnt a poet; as a pragmatic man, as a technician
and inventor, everyday life was closer to him. He hasnt forgotten anything 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 enjoyed being at the fire and the melting furnace. What was the difference between the two of them in the end, despite all of the similarities?
He didnt 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, thats
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 cannons 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 Krupps company. That he had
managed this coup is still an obvious source of pride, and he recounts 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 Germany 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 &
Khne in nearby Bochum, who about the time of the 1852 patent argued, 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
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 success 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 complicated, 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 secret as much as possible, because his research had yielded him an immeasurable 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 earlier improvements, they are proud of it, and they like to talk about it. De-
spite all obstacles and setbacks with the initial experiments, Krupp persevered, as was consistent with his character. In this he differed from his
partner, Slling, 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 hadnt 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
The machine
for the tires
went 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.
71
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 manipulation, 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 eightyear period was decided in the final patent declaration, on March 21,
1853. I am, Krupp adds, currently conducting talks with the gentlemen. 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), allowing wheels with a diameter of 1.25 meters to be machined. Most im-
The patent
was unchallenged
72
portant of all was the contribution made by the bandage mill the tires
mill, as Slling 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 requires 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 remembers 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 yourself what this means on a yearly basis: we could have easily delivered
24,000.
Could have or should have? The fine but significant discrepancy can be
expressed in numbers, concrete order and even more concrete production 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. Ill 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 evergrowing empire. In the old days he really took care of everything himself, 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 railroad wheels, the invention he is so proud of, the symbol of his company. 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 tech7
nological advancement.
Alfred Krupps patent

was valid in many countries,
including France and
Britain, but also America.
He personally made the drafts
for the final drawings.
Putting the right spin on things

Rothe Erde is Lord of the Big Rings
By Benedikt Breith | Photos Rothe Erde
Todays 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.
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, grinding
and when necessary
cutting.
n the Orient, large rings have always been a symbol of power and distinction. A ring has no beginning and no end, is an integral unit all by
itself, and therefore represents completion and perfection. At least
thats what the philosophers think. Technical people dont look at it
quite so romantically, but that is not to say there isnt a certain fascination: 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 perforated 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 explains 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 casting). But even here there has long been a place for high technology,
because to maintain the very exacting manufacturing tolerances an
Ring tolerances are exceedingly

exacting, but Rothe Erdes
computer-directed processes
allow a degree of precision
usually associated with the
space and aeronautics industries.
This enables them to stand up
to the toughest conditions.
Technology of the future

76
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 necessary, the milling process can be broken off altogether. For it is essential that the ring not be too big. Its better to be a bit small, for the
widening machine to the side makes it possible to increase the rings
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 result 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 expression 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 aeronautics industry, for power-generating windmills, cranes, digging machines, 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 complicated, 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.
Todays computer technology is a big advantage, helping create
a situation whereby customers individual specifications meeting
them, in Wozniaks 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 producing 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 inspection system works without disturbance that means a crane, for example, 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 Lloyds 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 Erdes approximately 4,200 employees around the world work sums up their mission of moving ever
forward in efficiency and technical progress. We find the right spin for
7
the technology of today and tomorrow.
77
78
By Heribert Klein | Photos Claudia Kempf
From ore to coil

Steel production is based on a complex logistical concept
It takes time to make sinter

out of the ores and the binding
agent, and then it is off to the
blast furnace stage, where
it will be mixed with coke and
so-called additions. The
resulting liquid pig iron can then
be processed into steel.
he 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 visitors 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 immediately 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 diagram 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 himself 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 worlds 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 transported 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 simple manner that nonetheless demonstrates its complexity. This includes the division into two basic processes: the
79
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 completely detached from one another time-wise and can be regarded 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, highly porous material (sinter). Afterwards, it is mixed with
coke and so-called additions and put into the blast furnace, 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 cannot 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 nature in the steel works is what remains vivid in the visitors
mind. While the theory is very dry, the practice is all the
more fascinating, despite its complexity: for example, during the basic oxygen-steel-making process, when the torpedo ladel tips its 400 tons of pig iron into the converter
that already holds scrap metal so many sparks fly upward 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-
From the blast furnace to the

converter: For the uninitiated,
seeing the converters gullet
open is a fascinating glimpse
into the fire, as molten pig
iron mixes with scrap in another
step on the way to making
highly refined steel.
80
From earth to fire
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 controlling 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 experience, 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 coordination that is both timely and appropriate to the material and thus ensures the most efficient level of operation, she says. However, the process planner denies that this constitutes human beings finding themselves being drawn into an unstoppable piece of
machinery (like Charlie Chaplin in the film Modern Times). We have exactly the reverse situation here. The expert system makes the complex requirements of each element 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 continuous 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 refinement plants seems all the livelier. There, however, the circumstances have
changed radically, according to Berendes account. Today, the seller is at the beginning of the entire logistics chain. His requirements are mirrored in the plant configuration, 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 allows visitors to guess where the sheer endless rolling train comes to a stop. The glowing 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
Another step closer to the

finished product, slabs
of slowly cooling, top-quality
molten steel are cut by torches
into strips, each 12 meters
(40 feet) long and weighing
20 metric tons. They are then
sent to the rolling mill,
where they are worked into
different forms.
From the mill to the customer

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 furnace 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 capacity 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 internal to an external viewpoint. We infer from the customer what has to be made and how. Especially the demands of the automobile industry for large modules
necessitate people from several disciplines to sit down at
one table. No one can push themselves to the forefront, neither technician nor salesperson. 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 nothing 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 philosophers 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 amazement 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 witch7
craft at all, but instead employing all the more human intelligence.
83
84
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 the
fastest possible time, thanks to
state-of-the-art technology.
In the right
place, at the
right time
It took advanced logistics to
ensure the smooth, timely delivery of
almost 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
By Inken Heeb | Photos Thomas Rabsch

he British press can be pretty tough when it comes to the countrys 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 frequent flights from Dsseldorf to London and then a journey by commuter train to the town of Ashford, in the county of Kent, where the control center for the work was based. The type of commuter trains still
widely used in some parts of Britain, which date back to the 1950s, 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 highspeed line from the mouth of the tunnel on the English Channel to
northern Kent, not far from Londons outer suburbs. This prestige
project, on behalf of client Union Railways, a subsidiary of London
and Continental Railways, is project managed by Rail Link Engineering (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 autumn, 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 venerable St. Pancras Station in central London in one seamless high-
speed journey at speeds of up to 300 km/h (186 mph). But trains running 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 Englands 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 DONT 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-
85
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 theres no
welding plant over there, then well 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, became 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 KENTS LANDSCAPE WAS A PRIORITY
als, creating a seam that is not only stronger than the usual aluminumthermal 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 GfTs sales director, who also served as the project director. 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, naturally) 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,
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 demolished. Once-bustling Beechbrook Farm, meanwhile, its function
as the focus of construction activity now over, is in the process of disappearing without a trace. Buildings are being knocked down, and the
long kilometers of shuttling tracks are being removed, so that this former 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 exhaustive 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 Kents
charming landscape starting in late September.
7
Finally, Weiss says with a laugh.
London to Paris at up to 300 km/h

A rail unlike any other: For the first
time, 108-meter-long naturally rolled rails
were installed in England, where they were
welded into 324-meter sections near
Ashford. They guarantee a top safety
standard and smooth traveling even at
speeds of 300 km/h.
86
87
A new standard for going

(partway) up to the heavens
The ISIS elevator reaches the summit in innovation for getting people up and down
By Heribert Klein | Illustrations Tobias Wandres
n a time long ago Isis, the immortal goddess, lived in Atlantis, but left the island before the sinking of this legendary realm to go to Egypt with a number of selected followers 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, cheerful 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 exactly 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 Dsseldorf
headquarters.
So what does ISIS stand for? Of course, at ThyssenKrupp its not a secret science 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 Elliotts continuing enthusiasm 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 engineering 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 company.
In Canada, we came close to becoming the market leader, he says matter-offactly. 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 Thyssens
elevator unit. He came to Germany in 1997 and is now Chairman of the Management
88
Board at ThyssenKrupp Elevator. Asked what he finds so

exciting about elevators, which many outsiders imagine
as not especially interesting, Elliott responds immediately. It is the only business in the world where, figuratively 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. Technological 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, ISISs
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 located 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 replaces the hydraulic elevator. He lists the immense advantages: better quality, better performance, greater reliability, smaller engines, smaller traction sheaves with
higher torque, higher longevity for the traction ropes, and
less noise.
Traction ropes made from kevlar

are a key component in the
ISIS elevator concept, since they
allow a smaller drive with higher
torque. This means the drive can be
made compact enough to be installed
directly under the cab platform,
which is a major space-saver.
89
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 mans dreams, and ISIS certainly incorporates this idea. ISIS, which was developed and built in
San Diego, is to be sold around the world as a technologically 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 concerned, 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, Im 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 emGary Elliott, Chairman, ThyssenKrupp Elevator AG
ployees of his elevator division, which includes 800 local branches with current annual 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 wont be possible without a major acquisition, he says.
Better methods, committed employees, innovative ideas, proximity to the customer 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 characteristic: 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 represents 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 Germany. 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 hours drive of Dsseldorf.
In ancient times, the goddess Isis also felt drawn to new environments, to disperse 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 building, 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
7
sales product.
A worldwide concept:
The standard ISIS elevator is
to be offered everywhere.
And yet the technology remains
flexible enough to meet
the differing requirements of
individual architects and
construction planners.
91
he 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 manufacturing 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.
Nothelfers 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, assemble the vehicle.
Managing Director Peter Zeller, a man in his 40s with a doctorate
in mechanical engineering, offers a colorful description of the companys services spectrum. Not in every detail, of course, Zeller says apologetically, referring to the strict security measures at the plant, which reflect the fact that discretion is part of Nothelfers capital. After all, as a
partner of car manufacturers, the company deals with models and design studies which nobody has seen yet and which may only come to
market several years from now.
BRINGING MOTION INTO AUTOMOTIVE ENGINEERING

So we dont 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 automotive engineering. Not without necessity because time is money.
Simultaneous Engineering means giving up earlier ideas of tackling the development of a new vehicle model in a sequential manner. Instead, 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 period 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 Engineering Association (VDMA): SE is an organizational strategy that allows for an early and equal cooperation of all units of a company and
suppliers that are involved in the product and the operating means required to produce it.
According to Zeller, Nothelfer applies its know-how to the customers 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 material 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 practice. 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 available pressing capacity. In addition, there is no need for a welding installation 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
Turning time pressure

into a business advantage
Simultaneous Engineering at Nothelfer, where people know that time is money
By Heribert Klein
92
51 +- 9
43 +- 7
36 +- 6
30 +- 5
1988
1992
1996
2003
The principle of simultaneous engineering is simple: The car maker and the
parts supplier begin working together as early as possible. Production time,
from design to assembly, has been reduced to as little as 30 months.
95 percent of the employees are skilled workers, specialists who develop innovative new concepts. Nothelfer supplies its customers with concepts, 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 production is of great help to us here.
Anybody who rushes through the spacious factory halls at Zellers
side gets an idea of the high technological level at which Nothelfer employees work. Prototypes of the newly developed parts for the automobilists, as Zeller wryly calls them, are being produced on the presses. 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. Nonetheless, 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 designs for our plants but also develop body parts and work out proposals 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 continuously 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 customers facility, have to get along.
For SE is a creative process which has above all one goal: setting thinking in motion and achieving greater successes through new solutions.
Life has gotten faster, Zeller notes. Nothelfer sees this as a challenge to regard this type of speed not as a threat but as an opportunity. The groups strong, occasionally even solitary, international market
position (with more than 2,300 enployees today) is proof enough that
7
Nothelfer has turned the shortage of time into a virtue.
In the flow of motion

Rowing man and nature
join forces so that the boat
can slice through the water.
And the cox sets the rhythm
By Inken Heeb | Photos Walter Schmitz
Authority based on experience

With only a few commands,
Stefan Lier directs his team of
rowers in safety as they
pull together in pursuit of victory.
For the past eight years
the 21-year-old Lier has
devoted almost all his free time
to this demanding sport.
e 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,18meter- (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
Julys world rowing championships in Belgrade.
Being a top competitor in rowing takes more than sheer muscle, and providing
the more in this case is Liers responsibility. He decides on the strategy and coordinates 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 seamless 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 momentum. A big part of the coxs 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
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 surely: 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 prevail that at first glance one might not have expected from
the slight student, who is 1.76 meters (59") 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 coxs weight of 55 kilograms (121 lbs.), which he accomplishes through a strict
running program.
Recognizing his ambition, self-confidence and sovereign air, the rowers dont 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-
Moving
in unison
Stefan Liers word counts

both in competitions and in
training sessions. Since authority,
commitment and respect
are the basis for recognition
within the team, it is irrelevant
that some of the others
in the boat tower over him.
99
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 weekend over the winter at the rowing training center in Dortmund, doing some 40 kilometers 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 waterway 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 working as a coach at the Crefelder Rowing Club and in 1995 attended his first international competition, the junior world championship in Hazewinkel, Belgium, where he directed 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 coachs long arm in the boat, he says modestly.
In the under-23s hes the best we have, says his coach, Thomas Affeldt. Adds
Liers 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
unit before beginning studies in economic engineering in

October 2002 in Dortmund, where he shares an apartment with two other rowers. The course of study is broad,
and includes mathematics, economics, electronics and
information technology, English, business administration, mechanical engineering, physics and law. I couldnt decide exactly what I wanted to take, and am interested 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
doesnt suit everyone, says the coach. Rowing demands a lot of time, and you have to be willing to work
on a team.
These are also characteristics that appeal to employers, so performance athletes and rowers in particular are much sought in the business world, and last
autumn ThyssenKrupp approved Liers application for a
study grant. Along with monthly financial support, the
Living for
top athletics
To ensure that the sport

leaves 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
100
program offers training programs in such areas as presentation techniques and project management, mentoring from a ThyssenKrupp executive, and various other contacts in the Group, including an internship.
With the study grants we hope to make it easier for interesting people to complete 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 technical expertise but also a proven skill in working with other people. We support people who, along with the right course of study, bring a willingness to work hard, an ability 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 others, 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 Groups 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, ThyssenKrupp 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-
lonska; the latter clearly recalls how the young rower introduced himself at a pre-competition training session at
the training center in the northern German city of Ratzeburg and inquired about the ThyssenKrupp study program. After submitting his application and related documents, 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 supporting students in subjects like economics and engineering, but also information technology and the social
sciences, at five universities, among then the University
of Dortmund, where Lier is studying. Another, more sentimental connection: Liers father and grandfather both
worked for the Group.
While this young mans life is now marked by challenges, 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 doesnt know when that will be, only that he
7
has a lot to achieve before that day comes around.
101
t is certainly an intricate maze of steel, and yet Scotlands 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 reddishbrown 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 trains
across the estuary of the River Forth
By Inken Heeb | Photos Karl Lang
102
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 undergoing extensive testing, maintenance and upgrading since 1999.
Brace by brace, girder by girder, the work proceeds, yet there is nothing 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 patriotic 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 bridges beauty and utility that they sounded out the possibility 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 northernmost of the three cantilever sections, the Fyfe cantilever, to propose
to his girlfriend, Claire. Happily, she accepted, and as soon as she did
Swifts colleagues came out from hiding behind a partition and serenaded the couple with a bagpipe. Needless to say, they were all invited to the wedding.
50,000 TONS OF STEEL AND 8 MILLION RIVETS
The projects security and health manager, Brian Stewart, has become
an expert on the bridge, and seems to know it almost down to the 8 million 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 bridge
has enthralled people
with its elegant symmetry
since its completion in 1880.
103
net a book published in 1911 that chronicles its development and construction. 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 required to guarantee that all work would be carried out without disturbance to regular rail traffic. For the highly skilled technical people working 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 additional complication: A precisely measured area above and to the sides of
the tracks, the so-called kinematic envelope, must be kept absolutely 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 removing 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 Bridge
connects the rivers south
bank near Edinburgh, the
Queen of Scottish cities,
with the Fife peninsula.
104
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 impurities than todays steel.
FOUR COATS OF PAINT TO PROTECT FROM WATER AND SALT
Steadfast
and unshakeable
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
105
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 BRIDGES STEEL FRAME
As for the steel of the bridges 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 protects 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
106
130 trains every day,

around the clock
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 absolutely necessary, Stewart explains. And the stone pillars supporting the track leading to the mainland havent 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 system was considered increasingly essential to the countrys continued
modernization and was undergoing rapid expansion. But optimists
saw their faith shaken on December 28, 1879, when a powerful winter storm caused central sections of the Tay Bridge to collapse and a
train plunged through into the water below, taking the lives of 75 passengers.
SAFETY FOR PASSENGERS AND TRAIN CREWS
When planning started for the Forth Rail Bridge, everyone was determined that such a disaster would not occur again. They wanted to provide 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 proud7
ly, for a long time to come.
As solid as can be: Since
the bridge was built,
120 years ago, the stones
in the pillars holding
up the bridge have not
moved a millimeter.
107
ts 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
Germanys 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 appearance, 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 stones 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. Theres nothing special about the
handrails or the horizontally aligned steps (so-called pallets). So

wheres the difference?
Still, theres something strange about the whole thing, the visitor
cant help thinking. ThyssenKrupp Norte advertises its longstanding experience 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 confidently 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 walkways 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 walks

Moving walkways made in northern Spains Asturia region accelerate smoothly and safely
By Heribert Klein | Illustrations Tobias Wandres
It starts slowly, moving at just

0.5 meters (about 20 inches)
per second, and in this phase the
moving walkway is similar to an
escalator. But that is about to
change.
108
Photo ThyssenKrupp Norte S.A.
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 perception of walkway technology.
The handrail moves in

perfect synchronization
with the pallets on
which the passenger
stands. The key
is a clever chain drive
system that produces
different speeds
to provide a smooth,
secure-feeling ride.
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 trottoirs roulants (literally rolling sidewalks) incited great interest among
visitors, and in particular appeared to herald huge potential for taking
After only a few seconds, the

passenger starts to understand
why this device is also called an
accelerating walkway,
because its speed quickly
increases to about 7 kilometers
(4.5 miles) an hour. That is
about twice the average
persons normal walking speed.
Then slow again: at the end of

the trip, the walkway slows
down, in the same way it earlier
sped up, so that passengers can
make a safe transition back to
walking on an ordinary floor.
109
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 appealing 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 covering long distances in less time while offering a new sensation that will
provide a little kick for both children and adults.
Its 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
Shortly before the end of the trip,

the walkway very gently slows down
In this advanced technology

system, the individual pallets
are placed directly atop
guide pulleys. In the start phase,
pallets slide under each other,
but as the walkway moves
toward full speed, the pallets
extend to their full width.
110
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 others 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 users 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 synchronously with the pallet movement. The engineers also found a solution for this
problem by using a chain drive that enables different speeds, in parallel 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 Asturias Innovation Prize 2002. Now the 80-meter prototype is waiting for customers who are anxious to reach their destina7
tion faster but just as safely as before.
While the technology

is advanced, the principle
is simple: Different speeds
can be achieved as the tension
is changed in different parts
of a chain. What you can
imagine, you can achieve, our
engineers at ThyssenKrupp
Norte in Spain like to say.
111
Choose online, print or DVD

Three different ways to learn more about the world of ThyssenKrupp
Internet Homepage www.thyssenkrupp.com
techforum
DVD - The film about the company
Image brochure
ThyssenKrupp Magazine
To order one of our publications, please go to www.thyssenkrupp.com and click the top service bar, under Publications.
ThyssenKrupp Magazine
Publisher: ThyssenKrupp AG, Dr. Jrgen Claassen, August-Thyssen-Strae 1, 40211 Dsseldorf, Telefon: +49 211 824-0
Project Management: Dr. Heribert Klein (responsible for editorial content) Art Director: Peter Breul
Writers: Benedikt Breith, Sebastian Gro, 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 fr Management-, Markt- und Medieninformationen GmbH,
Mainzer Landstrae 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: SociettsDruck, Mrfelden
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.
112
Citigate SEA
Tobias Reuter, 10
My dad can make

two elevator cabs run
separately in one shaft.
Tobiass father helped develop an innovative

elevator system. For the first time two cabs can
be operated separately in a single shaft.
Our ideas get things moving.
Dr. Gnter Reuter and his colleagues are responsible
for a revolutionary new development the TWIN
elevator. With this innovative system, two elevator
cabs travel one above the other on the same guide
rail. An intelligent control system coordinates the
movements of the elevator group. A four-stage
safety system guarantees that there is always a
minimum safety gap between the two cabs.
Ideas like this are in demand the world over. And
thats another reason why ThyssenKrupp is such an
attractive investment.
Visit us on the Internet: www.thyssenkrupp.com
Developing the future.
TK

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Nachhaltigkeit

My dad makes electronic

Tinos father is helping build a steer-by-wire

Developing the future.

Going down new avenues

Prof. Dr. Ekkehard D. Schulz,

4 Come with me to Never-Never Land

4 PUR is a top German rock group

66 Alfred Krupp had to

58 Steel is one secret behind a unique roller coaster

42 People buying a Rolex expect

By Heribert Klein | Photos Claudia Kempf

Imagination holds the key

As von Eichendorff wrote:

Und tus auf Deine Weise,

Enough said; lets leave the rest to music

PUR has found

He has made music

I watched many leave; I usually stayed

ThyssenK Magazine | 2 | 2003 |

You dont know if I am how I appear,

Just a moment ago, I was still playing Indians

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

Hartmut Engler was happy

By Benedikt Breith | Photos Dieter Rchel

Experts say that shock

Damping the vibrations

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

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

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

By Sebastian Gro | Photos Ayuntamiento de Toledo

The walkways help solve a

Visions turned into reality

A PLACE THAT DRAWS HOARDS OF TOURISTS

Walkways for the great outdoors

Future technology for a world cultural heritage

The walkways in Toledo

Thanks to 3-D virtual

By Sebastian Gro | Photos Blohm + Voss

Full steam ahead

A LOW-COST YACHT ISNT A CHEAP BOAT

It takes a mouseclick to wander through this hall.

LIGHT CONSTRUCTION EXTENDS INDIVIDUAL LEEWAY

By Benedikt Breith | Illustrations Andreas Weishaupt

The demands on systems

needs of our customers. The ThyssenKrupp Automotive slogan Future

For modern car companies,

Technical progress shows the way

Giving lots of attention

Experts in the underworld

FUN UNDERGROUND: COPENHAGENS MINI-METRO

During construction, water often seeped into the tunnels

By Alexander Schneider | Photos Michael Wissing

Precision strip means

From exciting car races

The material fits

Photos Karsten Enderlein

Its not just any steel:

There is a consensus in the country over this process you described as

Are they avoiding the issue?

We cant stand still

How do you go about recruiting young engineers?