The diameter of this drilling head is somewhat more than 13 metres; after it has been completed it is to be used for tunnelling in Central Spain. Company boss Axel Richter (light coloured shirt) getting an idea of how the work is progressing. Photos: Dieter Salzmann
Maschinenfabrik Richter builds the most powerful
equipment in the world in Hessisch
Lichtenau.
BY D I E T E R S A L Z M A N N
HESSISCH LICHTENAU. Large is not large enough
for Axel Richter and heavy is always still too light. In Richter's
company in Hessisch Lichtenau, real giant equipment is built - each
larger, higher, heavier than the other. Drilling heads for example,
for drilling railway or motorway tunnels through mountains. A drill
with a diameter of 13.20 metres is currently in production; after
it has been completed it will weight 74 tonnes and will be used to
make holes in the region around the Spanish capital Madrid.
Even larger work is scheduled for the coming year when the
company will be building a cutting wheel with which the access
routes for the Russian Olympic town Sotschi are to be dug through
the Caucasus.
Right next door a worker is welding a joint on the largest
excavator bucket in the world which is being made, is it any
wonder, for the world's largest hydraulic excavator, the 1000 tonne
RH 400. The excavator bucket holds 45 cubic metres, that is the
equivalent of a room which is five metres long, three metres wide
and three metres high.
The jib, chassis and the 96 chain links, each of which weighs
one and a half tonnes, will also be built in Hessisch Lichtenau.
For example, the excavator will be used in Canada to extract oil
sand, a profitable undertaking in view of rising energy prices.
"There is a great demand for mining excavators at the present" says
company boss Axel Richter. We currently have orders for 14 more
machines.
The company, with its 200 employees is doing well. It is
operating around the clock in three shifts.
Company boss Richter considers his company to be the only one in
Europe to produce everything from a single source "on the grandest
scale", as it is self-confidently stated on the homepage. In
principle, an unmachined metal block arrives in the production hall
from the foundry and then leaves the production hall as a finished
workpiece. In this way, 15 000 tonnes per year pass through the
company's two factory halls in Hessisch Lichtenau. Richter - with
one exception, a thermal tank for asphalt used for road repairs -
does not produce its own products. "We produce what a customer
orders from us", says Richter. Most of his customers come from
Germany, but more than 90 percent of the products made in Hessisch
Lichtenau travel abroad. For example, tanks are produced in which
the aircraft builder Airbus presses the wings and tail units made
of plastic. Wind turbine generator systems are also in great demand
at present.
Richter builds turbines and generator housings for systems with
an output of up to six Megawatt. As all the equipment has to be
tested on the land or off the coast for functional efficiency
before being installed at a height of 100 metres and higher,
Richter supplies the generator test rigs at the same time.
The largest wind turbine generator system in the world to date,
the Repower 5M near Brunsbüttel on the River Elbe has a generator
and bedplate weighing 92 tonnes in total made in Hessisch Lichtenau
at the top of it.
Construction of eight points for the Transrapid route in
Shanghai was also spectacular; each is made up of three segments
each 26 metres long. The points are made from flexible metal, which
can be drawn in the respective direction so that the Maglev system
can change tracks at a speed of 200 too. The company regrets that
the Transrapid won't be built in Germany.
The heaviest part yet left the assembly hall last year for
Russia: A 240 tonne component for a press for making pipeline pipes
has now arrived at its destination in Tscheljabinsk, beyond the
Urals.
Richter considers the Hessisch Lichtenau location to be ideal:
"We are located in the middle of Germany and are therefore central
in Europe too", he says. Through the planned further construction
of the A 44 motorway, the company expects an even better connection
to the German national motorway network.
Source: Werra Rundschau
