The Rise of Intamin

[coastercrazy216]

Today, Intamin is one of the most prominent and respected manufacturers in the world, but how did that happen? With the exception of Superman: Escape from Krypton and Tower of Terror II, they never really seemed to gain much prevalence until the Superman coasters. Don't get me wrong, they definitely had presence, but there was almost a sudden surge of Intamin coasters in the early 2000's. Is there any reasoning behind this? Does anyone have any other information on Intamin's history?

[Wes]

Anecdotally, most likely demand for large hyper coasters eclipsed the number manufacturers who were building them at that time (Morgan and B&M). Second tier Six Flags parks were the first to get the Intamin hypers (Darien Lake, New England, America) , so it's probable Intamin was offering an attractive price for such a large ride.

As for Millennium Force, Intamin probably offered the best deal to build a 300 foot tall ride. And it turned out far better than Morgan's attempt with Steel Dragon.

[SFOGdude25]

Intamin was very prominent in the 70s as well. They built KI and KD's Eiffel Towers, the Oil Derrick at SFOT, the Sky Tower at SFMM, and the parachute drops at SFOG, SFOT, and SFGAdv. Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't Anton Schwarzkopf work with Intamin to manufacture his earlier roller coasters like the Jumbo Jets, SooperDooperLooper, and Revolution?

 

My point is, Intamin has always been a pretty big player in the industry. They just didn't get quite as much publicity until 1999-2000 when their large-scale coasters came onto the scene. Intamin probably has the largest variety of ride designs to offer to parks today.

[TPDave]

I think you have to consider two approaches to this. Enthusiasts are always after the next big thing and some new invention that will thrill them more and of course parks consider this but they also look at the balance sheet and to be successful and expand in the way that Intamin have you have to assume they have made some shrewd business decisions and won a lot of contracts on price. As for why enthusiasts really like their rides, I'll preface by saying I have no idea(!) but I wouldn't be surprised if the following had something to do with it:

 

They work very closely with Stengel and jointly push the envelope as far as design and ride forces goes. They have been at the forefront of ejector air and are simply the best in the business at doing it.

 

They innovate. Constantly. Obviously most people will think of the plug & play woodies but smaller things like the continuous station on Tornado (and maybe others that I'm unaware of), offset lift hill chains to eliminate antirollbaks and a general embracement of hydraulics as a power source have made the rides more technologically advanced and I assume easier to maintain. That has to count for something with the parks. Their portfolio is also huge now and they can offer such a diverse product range which helps to get them into every sector of the market.

 

It's a pretty open ended question that you're asking and I'm interested to see what other people think about it.

[Aceattack52]

Anecdotally, most likely demand for large hyper coasters eclipsed the number manufacturers who were building them at that time (Morgan and B&M). Second tier Six Flags parks were the first to get the Intamin hypers (Darien Lake, New England, America) , so it's probable Intamin was offering an attractive price for such a large ride.

As for Millennium Force, Intamin probably offered the best deal to build a 300 foot tall ride. And it turned out far better than Morgan's attempt with Steel Dragon.

I can't imagine a 300 foot Morgan.

[DarienLaker]

Wasn't Jr. Gemini at Cedar Point Intamin's first coaster?

[ernierocker]

I can't imagine a 300 foot Morgan.

 

Imagine something like this:

 

[DirkFunk]

To make this very brief, it is important to understand what exactly Intamin is. Do they sell rides they themselves design and manufacture? Yes. They have also been, moreso in the past than now, a ride broker. They sold rides other people designed and built; Schwarzkopf, Von Roll, Willy Buhler, Giovanola, Waagner Biro, etc. They still do that.They will probably always do that. One thing that changed Intamin's approach is the association they have with Stakotra, who does the bulk of their fabrication these days.

[Midgetman82]

^^I remember when was shocked learning that thing was 300ft as well!

 

I assume Intamin also had an advantage in being able to push the envelope because their designed tracks and trains were more flexible and able to take on more harsh elements and forces. A B&M train couldn't be rocketed at 120+ mph without a much more powerful motor to launch it, I assume, because the trains look heavier. I'm not so sure which other company is also able to pull off such quick transitions like what's seen on I305 at KD, without it being too rough on everybody to the point it really hurts. For the latter, I remember the barrel roll the tried to install on Maverick at Cedar Point between the rocks, but took it out because it was too much.

 

I think one of their sparks is like what TPDave said, they've pushed the envelope in coasters.

Edited April 16, 2013 by Midgetman82

[ernierocker]

Wasn't Jr. Gemini at Cedar Point Intamin's first coaster?

 

You are correct.

[AndrewRnR]

As for Millennium Force, Intamin probably offered the best deal to build a 300 foot tall ride. And it turned out far better than Morgan's attempt with Steel Dragon.

 

I was able to attend an offseason construction event for Millennium Force back in late '99 and the park's spokesman said they looked at several companies but Intamin was the only one that was willing to work with the 300ft spec.

 

To that point and as a few others have said - Intamin is willing to push the limits. People always say to get aheld in a job do something no one else is willing to - I think that is Intamin's almost "niche" if you will. As in the case with Millennium Force, and we can only wonder how many others, Intamin had a leg up on the competition simply because they were willing to try.

[simon8899]

but didn't Anton Schwarzkopf work with Intamin to manufacture his earlier roller coasters like the Jumbo Jets, SooperDooperLooper, and Revolution?

 

The Schwarzkopf KG cooperated with Intamin on international sales specially in the US as Schwarzkopf was a typically "mid-sized family-owned" company here in Germany. Don't know how much Intamin was involved in the construction of coasters in the US, most likely they had connections to US companies who were able to do some of the steel construction. As far as I know German construction was mostly done on site at the Schwarzkopf plant with much of the steelworks done at BHS.

 

When Schwarzkopf KG went into bancruptcy some engineers founded their own companies like Gerstlauer while others went to Intamin, B&M, BHS and Maurer to support the coaster divisions there.

[Jew]

They became prominent the second they said "hey, we sell a bunch of stuff from other people---why don't we try this ourselves and build all the stuff we know the other guys won't?"

[rcdude]

I think the reason for Intamin's sudden rise in prevalence in the late 90s/early 2000s probably has to do with their offerings at that time versus before. In the 70s and 80s, even into the 90s, Intamin built primarily smaller steel coasters, either rides for a family audience or smaller footprint thrill rides (such as their stand-up and space diver models). At this time, Arrow and Vekoma were the dominant coaster companies, and were pretty much the only ones who did large steel coasters. B&M joined into the coaster market in the early 90s and immediately came out with several innovative, large scale coasters. Since this was the height of the coaster wars, every major park was looking for bigger, longer, faster, or taller rides, in addition to one of a kind attractions. In order to stay competitive, Intamin developed larger coasters. Superman at SFMM was one of the first of Intamin's larger rides, and between 1998 and 2001 the company came out with an inverted launch coaster (something no other company had (or has yet) done), a megacoaster, a gigacoaster (the largest coaster in the world at the time of its construction), and a large scale looping coaster. Not only were these attractions offered by relatively few other companies, but Intamin was willing to push the envelope on their designs and deliver the record breaking attractions parks wanted. This, combined with the bankruptcy of Arrow, resulted in Intamin becaming one of the most popular coaster manufacturers. In a sense, Intamin somewhat took over Arrow's spot in the world of coasters, as they do today what Arrow did in the 70s and 80s. Today, Intamin and B&M are the world's primary manufacturers of large steel coasters.

 

Now this is all based on looking at RCDB's installation data and browsing wikipedia articles, so it might not be quite correct. It also doesn't take into account Intamin's non-coaster work, which has always been important in the industry (they pioneered large ferris wheels, observation towers, drop rides, and motion simulators as well as inventing the river rapids ride). However, it does seem to make sense. Here are a few trivia facts that are also of interest:

 

-Since 2001, Intamin has generally had 5-10 coaster installations per year. Before then, it was rare that they had 5 coasters in a year.

-Over half of Intamin's coasters have been built in the past 15 years.

-Excluding their wooden coasters, Intamin didn't build a large coaster until 1997.

-Only two of Intamin's coasters built before 1997 are generally considered notable. However, since 1997 they have built at least one notable ride almost every year.

[Superbatboy]

Speaking of which, anyone know what accounts for the Intamin drought in the U.S. the past 3 years??

 

Seems to be a worldwide drought this year, only one attraction listed for '15

[tarheel1231]

The only Intamins I can think of opening this year off the top of my head are Journey Through Europe and that hyper coaster in China. As to why there is a "drought" in the U.S., I'd care not to start another coaster holy war.

[Comeagain?]

Could be that the people with all the money are looking for something other than what Intamin is offering.

Could be that they haven't been the "lowest bidder" during the design phase and other manufacturers would do it cheaper.

Could be Intamin is going through some major restructuring that's resulted in less energy being put into their products.

Could be parks are less confident in their safety record.

Could be that parks are worried about the maintenance costs compared to other manufacturers/rides.

Could be that many parks aren't currently looking for a big, expensive, risky, headlining attraction. Holiday World, SFNE, SFMN, and Carowinds being the exception, it seems like many US parks are using 2015 to add more to the parks quality then some bigger coaster, which seems to be Intamin's forte. Intamin doesn't (to my knowledge) offer an equivalent product to RMC's I-Box, and B&M just began building launches and has the only smooth wing rider trains, things that Holiday World wanted. And most of the other reasons above might explain Carowinds' decision.

 

If I were a park owner, I would love to work with Intamin. I really admire their willingness to push ride technology to its limits. But I don't have a park, nor millions of dollars so I have to stick with trying to convince my boss that they should look at what Intamin has to offer.

[Superbatboy]

Could be that the people with all the money are looking for something other than what Intamin is offering.

They offer everything though lol

[K1ngdaKa88]

Intamin started in 1967 with installing ski and chair lifts. Then they made observation towers in the USA and later they made their first coaster in the USA in 1979 (Jr. Gemini) and they opend a manufature in the USA.

[RaceBoarder]

To be fair, Intamin seems to have pushed the limits when they designed American Eagle at SFGAm back in 1981... It held several records for more than a few years... Not bad for a first effort

[A.J.]

They offer everything though lol

Bold statement.

 

They don't offer boomerangs, junior / family boomerangs, roller soakers, twisted single-bench wooden coasters, flying coasters, dive coasters, single-car vertical / beyond-vertical drop coasters, balloon race rides, outward-facing spinning coasters, power surge rides, top spin rides, wild mouse coasters, shooting dark rides, splash battle rides, compressed-air launch coasters, wooden coasters with inversions, four-across inverted coasters, blah, blah blah, blah blah...

[K1ngdaKa88]

They don't offer boomerangs, junior / family boomerangs, roller soakers, twisted single-bench wooden coasters, flying coasters, dive coasters, single-car vertical / beyond-vertical drop coasters, balloon race rides, outward-facing spinning coasters, power surge rides, top spin rides, wild mouse coasters, shooting dark rides, splash battle rides, compressed-air launch coasters, wooden coasters with inversions, four-across inverted coasters, blah, blah blah, blah blah...

They offer Beyond vertical drop coasters, for example: Farenheit @ Hersheypark

[sirspud]

B&M was king in the 90's because their track was able to perform elements that other companies couldn't do at the time and did so smoothly. Their capacity was also surely a major plus. Like the kings before them, by the time rides like Maverick came around Intamin was offering something a step ahead of what was being provided elsewhere. The quickness with which their track and trains can execute elements is something not experienced yet in the coaster world. The low capacity of these rides in comparison to rides like B&Ms was also less of an issue than it would have been in times past because parks getting these rides had enough high capacity B&Ms that it is more worthwhile to bring in a ride that is unique and will bring in people from afar while the higher capacity rides already there can offset this.

 

B&Ms to me are still the superior engineered rides when all factors are taken into consideration, but by now for the most part a B&M isn't going to feel dramatically different from other B&Ms, so a park like CP needing something new to push the envelope is well served to pursue the "something different" feel of Intamins to give riders a still fresh feeling.

[Superbatboy]

They offer everything though lol

Bold statement.

 

They don't offer boomerangs, junior / family boomerangs, roller soakers, twisted single-bench wooden coasters, flying coasters, dive coasters, single-car vertical / beyond-vertical drop coasters, balloon race rides, outward-facing spinning coasters, power surge rides, top spin rides, wild mouse coasters, shooting dark rides, splash battle rides, compressed-air launch coasters, wooden coasters with inversions, four-across inverted coasters, blah, blah blah, blah blah...

Well if you're gonna get all RCT on me

[Geauga Dog]

What I find surprising is that for a company that has the largest variety of coasters available there haven't been many of rides sold like their spinning coaster and suspended looping coaster at Sarkanniemi, which I would love to try.