Bolliger & Mabillard
 | |
| Company type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Roller coaster design |
| Founded | 1988 |
Key people | Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard |
| Website | www |
Bolliger & Mabillard Consulting Engineers (more commonly known as B&M) is a roller coaster design consultancy based in Monthey, Switzerland. The company was founded in 1988 by Walter Bolliger and Claude Mabillard, with Bolliger acting as president and Mabillard as vice-president.[1] Since 1990, B&M has built over 70 roller coasters around the world and have pioneered several new ride technologies, most notably the inverted roller coaster.[2] The company started with four employees and has since grown, now employing more than 30 people, mostly engineers and draftsmen.
History
Both Bolliger and Mabillard worked for Giovanola, a manufacturer who supplied rides to Intamin AG before branching off on their own. During their time at Giovanola they helped the company design its first stand-up roller coaster,Shockwave at Six Flags Magic Mountain. The pair also contributed to other Intamin AG projects, such as Z-Force at Six Flags Great America.
The company first made a name for itself in 1990 with their own stand-up roller coaster, Iron Wolf, located at Six Flags Great America, and rose to prominence two years later with the development of another project for Six Flags Great America, Batman: The Ride, the world's first inverted roller coaster. Since then, Bolliger & Mabillard have continued to design new roller coaster variants—such as the floorless roller coaster and the Diving Machine—and make their own mark with existing concepts, like the hypercoaster and flying roller coaster.
The company has made other contributions to the roller coaster community. For example, the firm also built the trains for Psyclone, a now-demolished wooden roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain. The trains are currently used on the park's Colossus wooden roller coaster during the month of October. The trains face backwards and are generally raced with the other track, which runs forwards.
As of 2009, Bolliger & Mabillard has over 70 operating roller coasters worldwide. Twenty of their creations are listed among the Amusement Today Golden Ticket Awards Top 50 Steel Coasters List for 2007, including four in the top 10. They have more roller coasters than any other manufacturer on the list.[3]
Features
Bolliger & Mabillard currently have eight different ride styles to choose from: "stand-up roller coaster", "inverted roller coaster", "floorless roller coaster", "flying roller coaster", "hypercoaster", "Diving Machine, sitting-down roller coasters , and Wing Rider roller coaster. The company has been involved in developing new technologies and concepts in roller coasters almost since its very inception, often working closely with engineer Werner Stengel, as well as with designers and management from the theme parks that retain their services. Reportedly, when Nemesis ride engineer John Wardley was about to test the roller coaster for the first time, he asked Walter Bolliger, "What if the coaster stalls? How will we get the trains back to the station?". Bolliger replied, "Our coasters never stall. They always work perfectly the first time."
One feature of Bolliger and Mabillard coasters that is common throughout their product line is an element known as a "pre-drop" (which is known in the industry as a "Kicker"). This is a short drop after the top of the lift hill and before the start of the first drop, designed to reduce tension on the lift chain. The flat section between the pre-drop and the first drop serves as a shelf to carry the weight of the train, reducing related stresses on the chain. By comparison, on most coasters without a pre-drop, the weight of the train as it begins its descent tends to pull on the lift chain, as the latter half of the train is still being lifted by the chain at this point. Pre-drops have not been used on any of their Diving or Flying coasters, or on Mega coasters built after 1999. More recently, the pre-drop is only used on coasters with curved drops, whereas coasters with straight drops, such as Hydra the Revenge at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom and The Time Machine at Freestyle Music Park do not have pre-drops.
Bolliger & Mabillard was one of the first roller coaster manufacturers to use four-abreast seating on their trains. Each car has a single row of four seats, and a train normally consists of seven to nine cars. All of their roller coaster models except the diving machine use this configuration. Instead, the diving machine uses six, eight or ten-across seating with two or three rows of seats, for example Griffon at Busch Gardens Williamsburg uses ten seats in three rows, a record for a full-circuit roller coaster, but the new for 2011 "Krake" at Heide Park, Soltau uses six-across seating in three rows.[4] On recent hypercoaster projects, notably Behemoth at Canada's Wonderland, Diamondback at Kings Island, and Intimidator at Carowinds B&M has unveiled a new car design with two rows of two seats, with the two in the rear of the car pushed out from the centerline, such that the four seats resemble a V formation.
Another notable feature of Bolliger and Mabillard roller coasters is that they make use of box-section track. The running rails for the roller coaster are connected to a box-section spine, as opposed to a circular spine used by many other manufacturers. Because of this, when a train travels around the track it creates a distinctive "roar", which is unique to this style of track.[citation needed] However, some B&M roller coasters, such as Talon at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom and Kraken at SeaWorld Orlando, have their track filled with sand to reduce this noise, resulting in an unusually quiet sound.
Also, B&M Hypercoasters, notably Apollo's Chariot at Busch Gardens Williamsburg and --68.194.203.102 (talk) 15:37, 15 October 2011 (UTC)Nitro at Six Flags Great Adventure, are extremely smooth and quite. The reason for this is because the supports are filled with gravel. However, standing near the stairs on the Que line of Nitro, you can hear the roar of the first drop, even though very quite. Because of this, Apollo's Chariot takes #1 as B&M's smoothest and quietest coaster.
The company generally does not use powered launches on their coasters due to perceived problems with reliability; they prefer gravity-powered roller coasters. The only B&M launched roller coaster in existence is The Incredible Hulk coaster at Universal's Islands of Adventure Park, which has a pinch-wheel-propelled launch designed by another company that specialized in powered roller coasters.
B&M unveiled their new "Wing Rider" roller coaster in 2010 and premiered the prototype model, Raptor, at Gardaland in 2011. Plans have been submitted and passed to build a second model, The Swarm, at Thorpe Park, a third model at Six Flags Great America X-Flight, and a fourth model, Wild Eagle at Dollywood, all in 2012.
In 2012, Bolliger & Mabillard will go above and beyond their standard mega coaster designs and will unleash their first roller coaster topping 300 feet (91 m), the giga coaster, Leviathan at Canada's Wonderland.
List of B&M rides
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There are 70 roller coasters currently built as of 2011. Five new rides will be built in 2012 and one will be relocated. The roller coasters are listed in order of installation.
Gallery
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References
- ^ "Bolliger & Mabillard". RCDB. Retrieved 2007-05-20.
- ^ "Bolliger & Mabillard - Inverted Coaster". Retrieved 2007-05-20.
- ^ "2007 Golden Ticket Awards" (PDF). Amusement Today.
{{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in:|publisher=(help) - ^ http://www.rcdb.com/9097.htm
- ^ Bolliger & Mabillard at the Roller Coaster DataBase Please specify an RCDB ID number as the first parameter.
- ^ Bolliger & Mabillard at the Roller Coaster DataBase Please specify an RCDB ID number as the first parameter.
- ^ "Wild Eagle: America's First Wing Coaster". Dollywood.com. Retrieved 2011-09-05.