Top on the Mountain

Once more, our quality machines proof to be the specialist for the exceptional tasks!

The „Wendelstein“ is a mountain in the eastern part of the Bavarian foothills of the alps, being at 1838 m above sea level. That mountain and its approx. 120 clear nights are perfect for observatory works. So, the meteorological observatory of the “Deutscher Wetterdienst” (German Weather service) which is manned day and night, as well as the observatory of the institute for astronomy and astrophysics, Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, and the transmitter of the Bavarian broadcasting service were set up there.

For decades, this station serves for observation of sun and of nocturnal sky objects. The 80-cm telescope from 1987 is replaced by a new telescope with approx. 2 m. This will be the central observing platform of the Munich university observatory. It will be equipped with a so-called wide-angle camera for mapping 0.5 degrees of the sky (full moon dimension) as well as with a multichannel camera (optical and close infrared), and with spectrographs for middle and high resolution. It will support the upcoming scientific projects of the university observatory Munich.

To set up this telescope, first, the old base plates of the 80-cm telescope had to be removed and a new substructure had to be built. The site manager charged an EDT EURODIMA customer with the according removal tasks.

One obstacle was really tricky: The observatory was only accessible with a rack railway dating from 1912; however, it is not allowed to transport machine parts or tools with that railway. So, the spectacular but highly cost-intense transport by helicopter was the only solution. In order to get the needed machinery up to the mountain-top construction site, a helicopter type Bell 205 A1 T53/17A was chartered. It features 1750 PS (1726 hp) performance, 325 l/h consumption and 1500 kg load capacity.

Comprehensive equipment was to be taken up by the helicopter, as the following machines were needed: two core drill systems, one hydraulic wall saw WM50 with the stable hydraulic unit HA150, one high-frequency electro-pneumatic wire saw WB12S, a demolition robot and the according diamond tools equipped with innovative DURAMANT® segment quality and produced with SPACE WELDING technology.

The lift station that runs from the accommodation to the observatory was cut by the height of one floor. Some further ceiling openings and door cut-outs were made by EDT EURODIMA’s reliable hydraulic wall saw WM50 and the hydraulic unit HA150.

The 80-cm telescope’s pylon that was made of reinforced concrete had a base area of 1 x 1.5 m and a height of 3.5 m. This was the perfect task for the strong EDT EURODIMA wire saw: It cut it smoothly and within shortest time possible into 10 parts. Every single concrete part weighed around 1425 kg! The robot did the mortising of the resting concrete base with a 5 m diameter and 2 m depth. All detached concrete parts had to be removed by the helicopter.

15 m² of cuts in highly fast pace were achieved with the wire saw WB12S. The highly reliable hydraulic wall saw cut 40 m² with depth up to 70 cm.

With the high-class DURAMANT® diamond segments and the drill bits with high-strength SPACE WELDING technology, two drillings with Ø 200 mm (6 m length) and four drillings with Ø 80 mm (4 m) as well as several further drillings with Ø 80 to 300 mm were finished in very fast time. Due to the positive features of the EDT EURODIMA tools, the job was easier.

Structural alteration works had to be done within a very tight time frame as, on an altitude of more than 1800 m, works have to be done before the end of September. The smooth execution of the drilling and sawing tasks in this altitude is very much depending on good weather. Unpredictable factors like the weather cannot be controlled, others can: The expert can always rely on the reliability of the strong machines and the high tool quality of EDT EURODIMA.