Geobrugg

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Geobrugg AG

logo
legal form Corporation
Seat Romanshorn , Switzerland
management Andrea Roth
( Managing Director )
Stephan Wartmann
(CEO Brugg Seiltechnik Holding)
Otto H. Suhner
(Chairman of the Board of Directors)
Branch Construction and security
Website www.geobrugg.com

The Geobrugg AG , headquartered in Romanshorn is a Swiss manufacturer of protective systems. Geobrugg belongs to Kabelwerke Brugg AG Holding. Together with the subsidiaries Fatzer AG and Brugg Drahtseil AG, Geobrugg is part of the rope technology division. Areas of application for the Geobrugg systems are rockfall protection, slope stabilization, slope debris and debris flow protection, avalanche protection, tunnel protection, motor sport barriers, network architecture and impact protection.

Companies

Geobrugg AG develops and produces nets and braids made of high-strength steel wire, which protect against gravitational natural hazards and accelerated objects worldwide. 141 people are employed at the headquarters in Romanshorn (as of 2015).

Wire rope nets were initially used for avalanche protection. Triangular nets with rectangular meshes were stretched on wooden supports, later on steel supports. The first installation took place in 1951 on Schafberg in Pontresina, Switzerland. The cable works Brugg AG received in the same year the patent on this new way of avalanche protection.

The avalanche barriers were repeatedly exposed to rockfalls in the snow-free time and successfully held them back. This observation gave Mr. Bindschädler, an employee of Kabelwerke Brugg AG, the idea of using wire rope nets originally for rockfall protection. The world's first rockfall protection structure made of a wire rope net was built in 1958 to protect overhead lines near Campocologno-Cavaglia in southern Switzerland .

In the decades that followed, the product range continued to develop: protective solutions against natural hazards such as landslides , hillside debris flows, debris flows and avalanche barriers were implemented, and more and more areas of application were opened up. Geobrugg networks can also be found in motorsport, in architecture, in tunnels and as protection against impacts. Geobrugg has been operating as an independent stock corporation within the Brugg Group since 2008.

In cooperation with the Federal Research Institute for Forests, Snow and Landscape (WSL), the WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF and other research institutions, new solutions are tested and continuously developed. In October 2011, Geobrugg set a new world record for rockfall barriers: it succeeded in stopping a test block weighing 20 tons with an impact speed of over 100 km / h and an impact energy of 8,000 kJ.

Branches

The company has subsidiaries in Italy, Austria, Spain, Poland, USA, China, Chile and Australia as well as five production sites in Switzerland, the USA, Japan, Australia and China. Qualified partners are in action in over 50 countries. Geobrugg employs over 340 people worldwide (as of 2015).

Field of activity

The areas of activity of Geobrugg AG are rockfall protection, slope stabilization , slope debris and debris flow protection, avalanche protection, tunnel protection, motor sport barriers , architecture and impact protection.

Test facilities

The climate change has increased the risk of natural disasters worldwide. The increased risk potential requires reliable measures to protect people from avalanches, landslides and falling rocks. Geobrugg AG regularly checks its systems in cooperation with Swiss research institutions in 1: 1 field tests. Approval tests according to the EOTA guidelines (ETAG027) as well as the FOEN guarantee compliance with safety standards. The tests carried out form the basis for further optimization of the systems.

Walenstadt

The engineers at WSL and Geobrugg have been testing newly developed rockfall protection systems in the Lochezen test facility near Walenstadt since 2001. After analyzing the measurement data, the rockfall protection barriers are officially approved by the FOEN or EOTA . Geobrugg was the first manufacturer in the world to test rockfall barriers using vertical throw.

Winterthur

In a three-year research project from 2012 to 2015 under the direction of the Bern University of Applied Sciences, a slope was simulated in order to analyze the load-bearing behavior of flexible slope stabilization systems under the most realistic conditions possible. For this purpose, a 13 × 15 meter steel frame was filled with soil material and tilted up to an angle of 85 degrees with the help of a 500-tonne crawler crane. The functionality of the stabilizing nets and the nailing was put to the test.

More proving grounds

Geobrugg uses other test sites throughout Switzerland:

  • Hagerbach experimental tunnel : testing applications for tunnel protection (2009)
  • Illgraben : Test of debris flow barriers in cooperation with WSL (2005–2008)
  • Saint-Léonard : Test of the falling stone curtains in collaboration with the WSL (2009–2012)
  • Vancouver : Test of hybrid rockfall protection barriers (since 2015)
  • Vauffelin : Horizontal test system for testing safety fences, operated by DTC AG (since 2009)
  • Veltheim : Test of slope debris barriers in cooperation with WSL (2008-2011)

Web links

Individual evidence