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 | Getzner dampens everything, except expectations |
- PUR insulates vibrations in installations all over the world
- Material's properties helped by a chemical intermediate from BASF
- Cooperation strengthened by more than 30 years of working together
A mid-sized Austrian company with a globe-spanning reputation for insulating vibrations relies on special polyurethanes to reduce the rumble of trams and trains and keep them moving more stealthily. Machinery and even entire buildings also get vibration-absorbing support from Getzner. The difference is due to its know-how and foam material, the result of what Getzner calls active and passive sound insulation. In formulating its multi-component materials the company, with 2004 sales of € 30 mil. and 150 employees, always relies on a certain chemical intermediate from the BASF’s diols family.
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"Rolling softly": Train on polyurethane.
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Following its completion in 2007, Switzerland’s Lötschberg tunnel, nearly 35 km in length, will be the second longest in the world. Only the almost 50 km-long Channel Tunnel linking Great Britain and the European continent is bigger. The new Swiss tunnel will also be one of the world’s most modern because it will be first in being able to accommodate the most diverse forms of freight and people traffic. Two tunnels, 40 meters apart, will speed passengers at 250 km/h and also handle freight trains loaded up to 4 meters high with trucks.
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| "Embedding" guarantees anti-vibration insulation from surroundings: Train and street-car rails. |
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It is easy to imagine the stress of heavy tunnel traffic that is nowadays still being carried on roads across the Alps – stresses that give rise to safety considerations and could lead to costly damages. However, BLS AlpTransit AG, the Swiss company in charge of construction and ultimately the operation of the tunnel, is not taking any chances. As a major safety feature track ties are mounted on highly elastic mats fabricated with a special polyurethane (PUR) by Getzner Werkstoffe GmbH in Bludenz, Austria.
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Slab Track Designs: Elastic components distribute loads evenly on tracks. |
The high-performance material is the leading product in Getzner's line. The company, established in 1969, is known for the depth of its experience in reducing rail and track vibrations. “Throughout the world we have made a name for ourselves in insulating track vibrations,” commented Peter Burtscher, Getzner’s marketing director. However, you need more than a good reputation to qualify as a contractor for an ambitious project like the Lötschberg Tunnel. Burtscher indicated: “We spent months on doing our homework. We counterchecked and confirmed our own test findings with outside certifying agencies. We optimized our materials to withstand special stresses, incurred in part due to the combination of very low temperatures and humidity. Whatever hardships the environment could impose – the mats had to retain their properties – for the long run.
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| Even buildings are erected on elastic materials for noise protection. |
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Besides performing all sorts of meticulous calculations and tests needed to arrive at exact mathematical definitions for the insulation of vibrations, Getzner also has to count on innovations: Nowadays more and more of the numerous polyurethane components have to be tailored to project specifications. Burtscher reports appreciatively: “Research and development now accounts for one-fifth of our workforce; moreover, over 35 percent of our sales stem from modified and new applications.” Expertise in rail, road and building construction is as much in demand as chemical know-how for formulating PUR materials. Just exactly what it takes the company keeps secret, but: “Any time we change the spectrum of properties to meet new challenges BASF’s intermediate continues to play a significant role,” observed Burtscher.
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Sleeper pads act as "cushion" for tracks. |
These properties are as attractive as omnipresent. Getzner’s “Inform aktuell”, a newsletter reporting on ongoing projects, reads like a list of the world’s outstanding construction undertakings. Each relies on Getzner for insulating vibrations. The diversity of projects reflects a wide range of PUR materials applications. Some examples: The 16 km-long Öresund bridge, linking Denmark and Sweden, has a Getzner-made dampening system which by preventing rail traffic from jarring the roadway on the level above keeps the bridge out of jeopardy; as much was accomplished for the vehicular bridge linking Lisbon with Southern Portugal which now has an added deck to accommodate trains; while the two-and-a-half kilometer-long suspension bridge over the Chao Phraya River in Bangkok, being suspended from pylons, posed even more special challenges for structural engineers.
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Not rattled (easily): Building next to PU dampened tracks.
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Take also Barcelona’s opera house where artistic presentations are no longer impaired by heavy traffic around the building; or a prestige office and residential building on Berlin’s Potsdamer Platz, now isolated from subway vibrations underneath and the elevated train above; as much holds true not only for the building above the Gagarin Square subway station in the heart of Moscow, but also for the Acropolis Museum in Athens which has not experienced any problems with vibrations since the subway was PUR-insulated; and if that is not enough Burtscher notes with satisfaction: “We are now also suppliers to French street car systems…in 2005 we won most of the bidding for elastic supports for mass spring systems!”
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Ballast mats provide high level of track elasticity. |
Each project hinges on conforming to multifaceted specific parameters designed to achieve the targeted vibration suppression in the completed project. A high-tech enterprise like Getzner copes endlessly with such challenges. Initially the work was more limited in scope. “Yet from the very start it was back-breaking work,” recalls Burtscher. “Thirty years ago we worked closely with BASF in installing elastic matting under the rails for part of the Ludwigshafen tramway system. It helped us gain experience.”
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| Peter Burtscher, Getzner’s marketing director. |
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A 10-year series of tests and sampling confirmed the success of our project which BASF application technology supported to help Getzner showcase its capabilities. Commented Burtscher. “It would have been difficult to sell potential customers merely on the basis of our mathematical calculations.” The back-breaking initial work forged a close, good relationship between Getzner and BASF and lasts to this day. “We can always count on BASF,” said Burtscher, “supplies of BASF materials always arrive punctually and in the requested quality, even on short notice for major projects. If we confronted a bottleneck, BASF never let us down.”
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