29
July
2011

Modern Drive Technique for an Historic Carillon in Salzburg.

The carillon in the historic district of Salzburg at the ‘Residenzplatz’ has been established in a tower built by Wolf Dietrich von Raitenau in front of the ‘Neue Residenz’. It originally had five stores. In the course of a renovation this has been equipped with a gear motor of the MAS gear system.

History
In 1701, an octagon construction was built onto the tower with open circular arcs and equipped with 35 bells from the Antwerp caster Melchior de Haze. The Archbishop Johann Ernst Graf von Thun ordered them, the Salzburg royal clock maker Jeremias Sauter did the assembling.  

The carillon
The Salzburg carillon consists of the bells and a 6.3 tons heavy musical mechanism that has 3,655 components. It is controlled by a drum and a mechanical, later on an electric clock. The bells comprise three octaves with all semitones.

Restoration
In December 2008 the bells have been taken down and brought to the workshop of the restorer Elisabeth Krebs in Vienna. The clockwork followed in spring 2009.
The company Ing. Predl- Sondermaschinenbau with its office in A-2344 Maria Enzersdorf has taken over the reworking of the shaft parts and the brazen bearing housing within the restoration of the historic carillon. The old gearwheel has been replaced as well due to damages according to permanent removal and installation.

After a two years restoration phase the restarting began on the 28th of January 2011 at 11 am.

Drive solution
At the edge of the drum is a chain wheel with a diameter of 2,200 mm and 720 cogs. The gear motor (Picture 2) is located on the bottom right under the drum and moves it with a chain. One drum rotation takes about up to 3.5 minutes stepless with a frequency inverter (depending on the melody).

On the output shaft of the WATT gear, a chain wheel is positioned with freewheel and roller bearing. It spins freely, when the drive of the drum (Picture 1) is accomplished over the rope drum and the weight on the wire.  Thus a removal and installation is not necessary anymore and the specifications of monumental protection are fulfilled.

The carillon is operated with PLC and a time program, 3 times per day for 3 minutes at 7, 11 am and 7 pm, in order not to come into conflict with other bells in the area. Cams operate the levers; pulling transmission is done with wooden strips, deflection rollers und wires to the bells.  About 35 melodies exist for which the cams are reset monthly.

Gear data:  HG 70C 81N4 TH BR10             

Power:      0.75 kW
Output torque: 5.2 U/min
Protection type: IP 55/F
Brake: 10 Nm, 102 V DC