TUV Austria Promotes Cable Car Technology With Maximum Safety

Austria's mountains. A year-round magnet for guests from Germany and all over the world - especially in the winter months. Skiing pleasure not only includes well-groomed pistes, but also optimal transport options for winter sports enthusiasts. This is ensured by around 1100 cable cars and more than 1800 drag lifts. At peak times, the plant operators recorded almost 500 million shipments.

Safety plays a particularly important role on the ascents to the mountain stations or on the way back down into the valley. And first of all: The safety standard of the local cable cars is impressive. Like elevators in buildings and infrastructure, they are among the safest means of transport in the world. To ensure that it stays that way, TÜV AUSTRIA Seilbahntechnik is on hand to inspect the existing systems every year from Easter until just before Christmas.

Decades of know-how, independent expertise

The only Austrian TÜV can draw on decades of experience in testing and inspection activities as well as certifications in the field of cable car technology. Close to the customer, with a wide range, one contact person - and above all independent.

Klaus Klocker, head of the TÜV AUSTRIA competence center for ropeway technology: “This independence and our know-how pay off particularly well for planners, manufacturers and operators. We don't sell any components, we don't do any maintenance work and we're not obligated to any shareholders. We only focus on safety.”

Cableways have a remarkable transport capacity, which requires a corresponding resilience and resilience of the system and the materials used.

TÜV AUSTRIA accompanies every project from planning, testing and certification of all components and subsystems, such as cables, drives, vehicles and mechanical and electrical equipment to initial acceptance and recurring tests. This also includes the preparation of safety reports and expert opinions.
trusting partnership

The asset of TÜV AUSTRIA is there, emphasizes Klaus Klocker, the meeting of specialists on an equal footing. “We are not 'evil' auditors, nor are we authorities. As an accredited testing and certification body, we are partners to our customers. This also requires a high degree of mutual trust and communication. After all, we are working together towards one goal: maximum safety.”

In addition to on-site inspections of the systems, for example measuring mechanical stresses on vehicles, ropeway components are also put through their paces in the TÜV AUSTRIA TVFA materials laboratories.
Franz Pockstaller, responsible for sales at TÜV AUSTRIA Seilbahntechnik, adds: “TÜV AUSTRIA TVFA is one of more than 60 companies that belong to the TÜV AUSTRIA Group in 31 countries. Their services range from measuring the pull-off force of the clamp and fatigue tests to magneto-inductive rope tests. With the help of non-destructive and destructive material testing of hoisting, carrying and traction ropes, clarity can be gained about the quality and the expected service life of a rope. A very decisive contribution to more safety.”
In the course of the test series, cable car cabins are also exposed to significantly higher loads over a longer period of time than during later operation on the route.

Used in Austria and internationally

With locations throughout Austria, the TÜV AUSTRIA Group is always very close to its customers and partners and, in addition to the classic safety-related services for cable car operation, supports them with a wide range of networked solutions. For example in the area of ​​electrical engineering for additional cable car buildings, for example offices, restaurants, shops or ticket offices. In fire protection, first-aid offers, infrastructure checks, such as testing elevators and escalators and testing according to the Work Equipment Ordinance (AM-VO).
TÜV AUSTRIA is also the first point of contact for additional leisure facilities around cable car stations, such as a climbing park, summer toboggan run or playgrounds. But TÜV AUSTRIA is also a competent and reliable partner in the field of gas, pressure and combustion technology, in drinking water hygiene, in the creation of traffic and parking space concepts, in training and further education for employees and of course in the event of damage.

The testing expertise of TÜV AUSTRIA is not only trusted in Austria. The ropeway technicians and materials experts work throughout the European Union, but also in Mexico, South Korea, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey.

Franz Pockstaller: “The networked solutions of the TÜV AUSTRIA Group make it safe all round! Safety that begins long before the first climb to the summit.”