Intamin

Design of roller coasters

Intamin Holland BV is a business specialising in the mechanical design and structural and dynamic analysis of metal fatigue for structures such as roller coasters, free fall rides and giant Ferris wheels. The company is part of Intamin Amusement Rides Int. Corp. Est., with its head office situated in Liechtenstein.

Intamin Amusement Rides Int. Corp. Est.

In 1967, Reinhold and Robert Spieldiener decided to set up a business for the production and manufacturing of amusement park rides together with their friend Ali Saiko. With their ambitions and aspirations in the back of their minds, they went off in search of a suitable name for their business. The name Intamin is an abbreviation of INTernational AMusement INstallations. Today, Intamin Amusement Rides is a global leader in amusement park rides such as giant Ferris wheels, roller coasters, water rides, free-fall rides and much, much more.

Intamin has built more than 100 roller coasters in parks all over the world. Intamin is also the proud owner of several world records. What about the roller coaster speed record, going from a standing start to 240 kilometres an hour in just 4.5 seconds? This record will soon be broken by a roller coaster in the Middle East with speeds of up to 250 kilometres per hour.

The company’s sales operations are primarily located in Liechtenstein and Switzerland, while the production mostly takes place in Germany, Slovakia and Switzerland. The design and calculations are drawn up at sites such as in Apeldoorn. Each year, the 10-man team at Intamin Holland BV works on two to three large and unique rides. The team also works on some 5 to 10 smaller rides each year in between the big projects. A large and new ride often has to be bigger and more spectacular than the rides already in existence today. This means that these designs need to be analysed from scratch. Lead times for such a project can easily take up to one or two years, including certification from testing organisations such as TŰV and other testing bodies.

Among the largest roller coasters in the world are the Kingda Ka in New Jersey (USA) and the Top Thrill Dragster in Ohio (USA). A few years ago, Intamin Holland BV was involved with designing the tallest free-fall tower in the world. This tower is 100 metres high and is located in Florida (USA). Closer to home, the Apeldoorn team was responsible for the renovation and structural recalculation of the Efteling’s Python roller coaster a few years ago.