Intamin Facts for Kids

Quick facts for kids
Intamin

Industry	Manufacturing
Founded	1967
Founder	Robert Spieldiener Reinhold Spieldiener Alfons Saiko
Headquarters	Schaan , Liechtenstein
Number of locations	8
Area served	Worldwide
Key people	Patrick Spieldiener (CEO)
Products	Amusement rides
Divisions	Intamin Amusement Rides Intamin Transportation
Subsidiaries	ABC Engineering AG ABC Rides

Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure, one of the world's tallest rollercoasters.

Intamin Amusement Rides is a company from Schaan, Liechtenstein. They are famous for designing and building exciting thrill rides and roller coasters. You can find their rides in many theme parks and amusement parks all over the world. The name Intamin comes from "international amusement installations." The company has offices in Europe, Asia, and the United States.

Intamin is best known for its amazing roller coasters. They work closely with parks to make sure each ride fits the park's space and local rules. They build everything from small "kiddie" coasters for kids to some of the tallest and fastest steel roller coasters on Earth. Intamin also makes special wooden roller coasters. These are designed by computer and built with pre-cut wood, which makes them easier to build and gives a super smooth ride!

Intamin has created many unique rides. They built the very first river rapids ride, called Thunder River. They also helped bring the first freefall ride and drop towers to parks.

Besides roller coasters, Intamin builds many other fun attractions. These include tall vertical rides and drop towers, exciting water rides like log flumes and river rapids, and cool water coasters. They also make dark rides, big swing rides, and observation towers. Intamin is known as one of the most creative and popular ride companies today. They have installed rides in many countries, including the United States, Canada, Japan, China, Germany, and more.

Awesome Rides and Technology
- Amusement Park Rides
  - Roller Coasters
  - Ferris Wheels
- Transportation Systems
Famous Intamin Rides
Safety Information
See also

Awesome Rides and Technology

Intamin makes two main types of products: rides for fun and transportation systems.

Amusement Park Rides

Roller Coasters

Intamin invented the first hydraulic launch system, called the Accelerator Coaster. This system shoots roller coaster trains from a stop to super-fast speeds in just a few seconds. For example, Kingda Ka at Six Flags Great Adventure launches riders from 0 to 128 miles per hour in only 3.5 seconds! It's North America's tallest and fastest coaster.

Intamin is also famous for its huge Mega and Giga Coasters. These are their names for very tall roller coasters. Giga Coasters are between 300 and 399 feet tall, while Mega Coasters are between 100 and 299 feet tall. Some of their most popular coasters, like Millennium Force, Superman the Ride, and Expedition GeForce, have won awards.

Intamin uses computers to design and build its wooden coasters. This is different from older wooden coasters that were built by hand. Rides like Colossos and El Toro use this method. Their tracks are made from strong, pre-cut wood sections. This design allows these wooden coasters to go as fast and smooth as steel coasters, but they still look and feel like classic wooden rides.

Another cool Intamin invention is the ZacSpin. This is a special type of 4th Dimension roller coaster that first appeared in 2007. Kirnu in Finland was the first ZacSpin. On these rides, the cars have seats that stick out to the sides. As the car moves along the track, these seats can spin freely, giving riders a unique and wild experience!

Maverick at Cedar Point.

Hyperion at Energylandia.

Intamin also has a connection to another famous ride company, Bolliger & Mabillard (B&M). The engineers who started B&M used to work for a company that often helped Intamin build rides. This is why you might see some similarities in the track designs of older Intamin rides and B&M coasters.

Ferris Wheels

Giant Wheel, a double wheel at Hersheypark.

Sky Whirl, a triple wheel at Six Flags Great America.

Incredicoaster, a Custom Intamin Looper at Disney California Adventure.

Intamin has also been involved with building large Ferris wheels. They helped create several unique wheels, including the Giant Wheel at Hersheypark. This wheel had a central column with multiple arms, each holding a Ferris wheel.

They also helped create Sky Whirl, the world's first triple Ferris wheel. This amazing ride opened in 1976 at two different parks. It was 33 meters (108 feet) tall!

More recently, Intamin designed and built the Orlando Eye, a giant observation wheel that opened in Florida in 2015.

Transportation Systems

Beyond theme parks, Intamin also builds monorail transportation systems. These monorails are used in cities and at tourist spots around the world. Intamin helped design and build the Moscow Monorail in Russia, which is 4.7 kilometers (2.9 miles) long and has six stations.

In 2016, Intamin monorails opened in Turkmenistan and Nigeria. In 2020, the Marconi Express monorail opened in Italy, connecting the Bologna airport to the train station.

Intamin has also built monorails for amusement parks in China and Vietnam.

Famous Intamin Rides

Year	Special Feature	Ride	Location	Notes
1981	First wooden coaster by Intamin	American Eagle	Six Flags Great America	When it opened, it had the longest drop and fastest speed for a wooden coaster.
1997	First coaster over 300 feet tall First coaster to go 100 mph	Tower of Terror II	Dreamworld	The train does not go all the way around the track.
1997	First coaster structure over 400 feet tall	Superman: Escape from Krypton	Six Flags Magic Mountain	The train does not go all the way around the track.
2000	First Giga Coaster (over 300 ft) First coaster to drop 300 ft	Millennium Force	Cedar Point	First complete-circuit coaster over 300 feet tall (310 ft). The drop is exactly 300 feet.
2001	First wooden coaster with pre-made track	Colossos	Heide Park
2002	First coaster with 10 inversions	Colossus	Thorpe Park	It has 10 upside-down parts!
2002	First hydraulic launch coaster	Xcelerator	Knott's Berry Farm	Goes from 0 to 82 mph in just 2.3 seconds.
2003	First Strata coaster (over 400 ft)	Top Thrill Dragster	Cedar Point	Was the tallest and fastest coaster in the world when it opened (420 ft tall, 120 mph).
2005	World's tallest coaster (since 2005)	Kingda Ka	Six Flags Great Adventure	456 feet high; launches at 128 mph.
2007	First ZacSpin Coaster by Intamin	Kirnu	Linnanmäki	First compact 4-D coaster in the world.
2007	Intamin's first Wing Rider coaster	Furius Baco	PortAventura Park at PortAventura World	Launches from 0 to 135 km/h (84 mph) in 3.5 seconds.
2010	World's first freefall drop coaster	Thirteen	Alton Towers	Part of the track drops straight down!
2010	Current record holder for the world's fastest coaster	Formula Rossa	Ferrari World	Top speed 150 mph.
2014	First ride to tilt riders 90 degrees before a drop	Falcon's Fury	Busch Gardens Tampa Bay	North America's tallest freestanding drop tower.
2016	Fastest multi-launch coaster (forward only)	Taron	Phantasialand	Held three world records when it opened.
2017	Fastest LSM-launch coaster	Red Force	Ferrari Land at PortAventura World	Currently the fastest LSM-launched coaster in the world.

Safety Information

Like all large machinery, amusement rides need to be very safe. Intamin works hard to make sure their rides are safe. However, sometimes problems can happen. Over the years, there have been some incidents on Intamin rides that led to injuries or other safety concerns. When these happen, investigations are done to understand what went wrong and to help prevent similar issues in the future. Parks and ride manufacturers constantly work to improve safety features and procedures.

Intamin facts for kids

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