PROGRESS IS
DRIVEN
BY SUCCESS

More than 95% of the intercontinental exchange of goods worldwide is carried out by ship. In addition, there is inland waterway transport, which, depending on the continent, handles up to 60% of the turnover of goods. In order to reduce general cargo costs and remain competitive, shipping companies are demanding ever larger and faster ships. Above all for the transport of containers. A high demand on shipyards, engineers and equipment. And to our ball valves, which reliably regulate the flow of a wide variety of working gases for welding and cutting.

Despite all understandable enthusiasm for renewable energies, it is quickly overlooked that crude oil is still the most important raw material of modern industrial societies. Without it, so to speak, nothing works. 25% of the proven reserves are located off the mainland coast and a quarter of the 18 billion litres consumed daily worldwide are extracted offshore. On oil rigs and production platforms whose jobs are among the most extreme and whose technologies are among the most demanding in the world. The route taken by crude oil from the borehole via pipelines on land or on tankers is determined by strict ecological requirements. Our ball valves meet the required criteria.

No other science is as omnipresent in our everyday lives as chemistry: medicines, plastics, textiles, cosmetics, paints, lacquers, baking agents, fertilizers, toothpaste, motor oil, petrol and CDs. All of them and with them a long chain of other products are the result of chemical processes. Engineers and plant constructors have a wealth of technologies available for the various process technologies and production methods. And equipment consisting of reliable components, modules and systems. In order to bring to fruition what was launched in the laboratory in an economically sensible and ecologically justifiable manner on a large scale. Our ball valves have their fixed regulatory place in these complex structures.

At 800 tons, one of the flagships of mobile hydraulics is probably the heaviest hydraulic excavator in the world at the time, measuring a proud 16 meters in height with its shovel unfolded. In Canada, it transports 8,000 tons of oil sand hourly around the clock into waiting dump trucks. An enormous volume that can only be handled with high-performance hydraulics and sensitive control components such as hydraulic blocks. In almost all hydraulic systems, these control blocks regulate the pressure, flow rate and direction of flow of the fluid in question. With our plate ball valves, material flows can be reliably diverted, shut off or released as required.

Among the forming techniques, open-die forging is the oldest and, as the supreme discipline, has lost none of its fascination to this day. For a long time anvil, muscle power and water hammer have been replaced by enormous forging presses and their no less dimensioned manipulators. When one considers that forces of 120 MN are brought exactly to the point and forgings of 200 t precisely guided find their position between bear and saddle, one suspects the work done by the hydraulics. We are a little proud to be part of this free play of forces with our ball valves.

The times have passed when the miner worked underground with his pit horse and his canary signalled him to leave the longwall mining area as soon as the weather was right. Today pit horses have been replaced by conveyor belts, pickaxes by shearer loaders, heavy stamps by highly developed hydraulic shields. With a removal resistance of up to 1,000 tons, these shields push under the overburden. To protect people and technology. A complex hydraulic technology is used here. With long hose lines and our ball valves. Developed and built for robust underground use. Safe is safe.

It is not only in the Zillertal valley that the discussion about artificial snow is a hot topic. Economic and ecological interests are diametrically opposed. Reservoirs, pumping stations, pipelines, hydrants, cooling towers, snow cannons and lances are necessary for the basic snowmaking in autumn and the shooting in winter. Previously lavishly over-powdered, the pistes are now covered with snow with the aid of GPS and snow depth measuring caterpillars. This now saves costs of 25%. In addition, there is the optimization of the aggregates, the finer dosing of the water, for example. Part of this gratifying development is our ball valves. For good reason.