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3.
Volume
Jahrgang
5 Issue
Ausgabe
1 March
2 Juli
2009
2007
WASSER
BERLIN 2009
Advance reports on “Wasser Berlin”
and “Interalpin” in Innsbruck
Magazine for Employees
and Business Partners
of the Company

Contents
WASSER
BERLIN 2009
3 Editorial
Projects
4 Ductile cast iron turbine pipe for the Niedergesteln drinking water
hydroelectric power station in the Swiss canton of Wallis
6 Renovation of a drinking water pipeline – A relining project on the
Alleenring in Frankfurt
7 The North Industrial Park in Leipzig-Plaußig – Drinking water pipe
line for developing new sites on an industrial park
8 Snow for Macedonia ... Ductile cast iron pipes from TRM for skiing
region of Kožuf
9 and for La Thuile in the Aosta Valley
10 Venlo puts its money on ductile cast iron sewage pipes
11 Drinking water supply in the Veľký Krtíš district in the Slovak Republic:
The EU is providing most of the finance
12 Berlin: A winding road doesn’t put bends in our pipes
Bundesliga Division 2 and the ”two-up” cast pipe
13 Posušje: The Tribistovo-Posušje soft loan project
TRM pipes for Himmelreich hydroelectric power station
14 Trenchless pipe laying in Salzburg and Wels
Coating of fittings at TRM now has GSK certification
Reports
15 Full halls at Pollutec in Lyon
The meeting place for infrastructure at Rotterdam in the Netherlands
Recruitment open day at TU Bergakademie Freiberg
technological university
16 Wasser Berlin – The meeting point for the water and
waste water industry
17 Interalpin – The industry’s international meeting point for Alpine
technologies
18 60 years of Hagenbucher ... means 60 years of working
well together!
20 Homely and yet cosmopolitan. The Swiss capital has a lot to offer
21 A model BLS ® for the mayor of Bilbao:
Francisco Domínguez of Construtec welcomed to the town hall of
the Basque metropolis
A revolving pipe puts the sense of balance out of kilter: One more
attraction added to the Optikparcours in Wetzlar
About us
22 TRM invests six million Euros – An interview with Günter Fuhry,
CEO of Pipe and Pile International S.A.
24 Welcome! – Our new members of staff at BGW and TRM
25 Klaus Emrich is taking over as technical works manager at BGW
Andreas Weiler – New export manager at TRM
26 An appointment made to tidy things up: Action Day in Wetzlar
27 The improvements system at Tiroler Guss: A report on
2007 to 2008
Anniversaries
Imprint
Contents

Dear readers of inFORM
We can look back on a successful year in 008 and forward to a
very challenging one in 009.
Over the past year, our group of companies has increased its
sales and turnover considerably despite all the obstacles on the
financial and procurement markets. In particular this can be attributed
to the success of our excellent products and our application-oriented
expertise; we have again succeeded in convincing
our customers of what we can do and how well we can do it.
For this, we thank all of our employees for their efforts and our
customers for the unfailing trust that they place in us.
We will use this to spur us on to cope with the year ahead.
In view of the worrying daily reports on the international economy,
there is no need to stress that this year is going to be one
of the most challenging in the history of our company. Nevertheless,
we are heading into it with determination and optimism and
are convinced that the challenge will be successfully met. In relation
to this you might also like to read the interview with Günter
Fuhry, the new CEO of our group, on pages and .
In 009, the only way of tackling the major refurbishment and
renovation tasks that exist in the public water supply, waste water
and sewage disposal sectors is with increasing energy and
with the help of modern-day laying techniques. In view of the
large amount of modernisation that is being done and the unrelenting
pressure of costs in below-ground construction work,
trenchless laying is becoming a must for saving time and money
and reducing disruption to people and the environment. We have
therefore made techniques for trenchless laying the main theme
of what we are showing at the “Wasser Berlin” exhibition ( 0
March to April 009). We cordially invite you to come and visit
us at “Wasser Berlin”! You will find us on stand 40 in hall 5. B.
See the advance report on page 16.
What “Wasser Berlin” is to the water industry, whose customers
are predominantly local authorities, “Interalpin” is for the tourist
industry in Alpine regions. It will be coming round again on
April 009 and the organisers, Messe Innsbruck, will be opening
the doors to the industry’s top event until 4 April. We will of
course be there, with our high-performance pipe solutions for
snow making installations and would like to cordially invite anyone
and everyone with an interest to come and see us there in
Tyrol! (Advance report on page 17).
Thanks to the good weather for skiing, the 008 – 009 season
was successful for the majority of Western European regions,
even though this was another winter when the amount of natural
snowfall – particularly in the first season half – stayed well within
limits. This is a good reason for many ski slopes and ski-lift operators
to carry on resolutely with the expansion of their facilities
for making artificial snow in the coming season. This is the only
way to succeed in the international competition for Europe’s ski
tourists, as Eastern Europe is starting to get well equipped. In this
issue of inFORM we tell you about two of the group’s interesting
snow making projects (pages 8 and 9).
Eastern Europe is a growth region and drinking water supply is
another area where massive investments are allowing it to catch
up and approach the standards prevailing in Western European
countries. Some examples of major projects of this kind in Slovakia
and Bosnia-Herzegovina are to be found on pages 11 and 1 .
Within our own company, a lot has happened since the last issue.
In November we took great pride in celebrating 60 years(!) of
working with our sales partner in Switzerland, the TMH Hagenbucher
company. What better reason could there be for us to
take this occasion of introducing you in some detail to our Swiss
colleagues (pages 18 and 19).
We also have a number of new members of staff who we would
like to welcome to the company (page 4), and would like to
introduce you to two important “new boys” who are taking up
key positions (page 5). These are all names and faces you should
remember!
We hope that in this issue of inFORM we have again brought
you some interesting and varied items from the different departments
and areas of the Buderus/TRM Cast Iron Pipes Group.
Have a great read!
Günter Fuhry Max Kloger Stefan Weber Ulrich Päßler
Editorial

Projects
4
P u t t i n g w a t e r t o w o r k t o g e n e r a t e e l e c t r i c i t y
Hydroelectric power stations powered by drinking water have a long tradition in the Alpine
countries. Even before there was a public electricity system, hoteliers in the Engadin
were putting turbines in water pipes to allow them to offer their guests electric light.
Since then, this simple way of generating electricity has become more and more widely
used. In Switzerland alone, around 100 new drinking water hydroelectric power stations
have been built since 1990. Because the production of electricity does not affect the quality
of the drinking water, it represents a welcome source of additional income for many
water supply utilities. Also, hydroelectric power itself as a source of energy is becoming
increasingly important as it offers many advantages from an environmental point of view.
The energy generated in drinking water hydroelectric stations is one of the most environmentally
compatible energies of all. It is 100% renewable, almost free of CO 2 , and does
not require any additional interference with the natural hydrologic balance. When drinking
water hydroelectric stations are built or set up there is generally minimal effect on the
natural environment. Suitable locations for power stations of this kind can be found not only
in high mountain ranges where there are large differences in altitude between the points at
which spring water is extracted and those at which the drinking water is stored but also in
more low-lying regions. Even a pressure head of 50 m and a volume of water of 500 l/min
may be enough for the economical and environmentally friendly generation of electricity.

Ductile cast iron turbine pipe for the Niedergesteln drinking water
hydroelectric power station in the Swiss canton of Wallis
This trend – putting water to work to generate
electricity – is one that has also been
followed by the community authority of
Niedergesteln in the Swiss canton of Wallis.
In 007 the company TWKW Trinkwasserkraftwerke
Niedergesteln AG was founded
with the aim of powering a turbine with its
drinking water from the spring regions at
high altitude and producing “green” electricity
for the inhabitants of this village nestling
idyllically at the foot of the mountain
known as the Gestelnburg. Construction
of the power station was planned in two
stages and, when fully developed, it will
generate about 4.1 million kilowatt hours
of electrical energy. The investment costs
were 8.6 million Swiss francs. Work on the
first stage of development began in the late
summer of 007 and a ceremony was held
to put the complete plant into operation
on November 008.
The construction of the power station
consists of a bottom stage (Tatz to Niedergesteln)
and a top stage (Chiemattbodu
to Tatz).
Because of the maximum operating pressure
of around 80 bar in the first stage and
the difficult terrain, there was really no
question at Niedergesteln – or indeed at
many other hydroelectric power station
projects in the Alpine countries – of any
other pipe material being considered. It
had to be ductile cast iron pipes! Nor, to be
on the safe side, could any other material,
any other joint than the BLS ® restrained
joint or any other coating than the ZMU
(which is called the FZM or fibre cement
mortar coating in Switzerland) be contemplated
in view of the variations in pressure
which could be expected given the long
turbine pipe. This is why BGW’s Swiss sales
partner, TMH Thomas Hagenbucher, was
given the contract for the complete supply
of the pressure pipe.
The laying work began in the spring of
007. In stage one, a DN 00/ 50/ 00 pipe
of a length of ,157 metres was laid. This
was followed by ,061 metres of nominal
sizes of DN 50/ 00 in stage two.
In the steep terrain, the installation work
was a major challenge to both men and
material. The only means of access to
the majority of the region covered by the
installation site was hiking tracks, so the
pipes and equipment had to be flown in
by helicopter. The helicopter shipments
by Air Glacier and Air Zermatt carried on
week after week and both the locals and
tourists would stop to stare at the pipes
suspended from the helicopters by heavy
cables. Special excavators had to be used
because of the confined spaces in which
work had to be done. In addition, a 16 kV
cable, a control cable and a cable protecting
pipe had to be installed on the same route.
The entire line followed by the pipe was
selected to avoid any reverse gradients.
This has advantages for draining and the
prevention of built-up deposits but it did
mean that the pipeline had to be run below
the Jolibach stream and that there was no
way of avoiding laying it along a wall of rock.
However, at the end of the day, none of this
was a problem, either for the experienced
teams from Martig + Bürgi AG, Raron,
Schmid Bautech AG, Brig-Glis, and Bregy
Haustechnik AG of Steg, or for the ductile
cast iron pipes, which are well known to
take this sort of thing in their stride. Some
0 metres of pipe could be laid each working
day. Even so, people did breathe a sigh
of relief when the final testing of the pipe
prior to commissioning went off well and
no faults were found. As well as improving
the energy supply of the Niedergesteln
district, the drinking water hydroelectric
power station has also increased its drinking
water capacity by 60%.
Projects
5

Projects
6
The Alleenring is Frankfurt’s second ring
road. Running along part of it, below
ground, there is a DN 500 drinking water
pipeline and because of the danger of fractures
to it a length of , 00 meters needed
to be renovated between the intersections
at the Nibelungenplatz and the Danziger
Platz. The pipeline supplies drinking water
to the northern part of Frankfurt, the great
metropolis on the Main, from the areas in
the south of the town where the water is
obtained and it was suffering from the infirmities
of old age – it had been laid between
1904 and 19 9. Possible methods of renovation
had been considered beforehand in
a comparison of variants which was made
as part of a feasibility study. The study had
looked at the economic, technical and operating
aspects of five variant methods of
renovation and in so doing had also taken
into account incidental conditions relevant
to the project such as traffic and environmental
requirements, because the Alleenring
is a major artery for east-west connections
which carries high levels of traffic. As
well as deciding that the pipe should be of
R e n o v a t i o n o f a
d r i n k i n g w a t e r p i p e l i n e
A relining project on the Alleenring in Frankfurt
the DN 00 size, the study also concluded
that, for economic reasons, the renovation
should be carried out by a trenchless
method.
BLS ® joints and pipe relining came out
the winners
Shortlisted among the suitable, largely
trenchless methods considered was pipe
relining using either butt-welded steel
pipes or ductile cast iron pipes and the
BLS ® restrained socket joint. A cost comparison
between the two types of pipe did
show them to be almost on a par with one
another. However, when the time and the
quality assurance required for the making
of the welds when using steel pipes were
compared with the making of the BLS ®
restrained socket joints when using ductile
cast iron pipes, the former were assessed
as taking more time. With the BLS ®
system, only eight minutes is needed for
each socket joint and – and this was another
crucial point in favour of the tried
and tested Buderus joint – angular deflections
of up to .5° are possible. So, a
clear plus for BLS ® ! Consequently, when
the method was laid down, the pipes decided
on were Buderus DN 00 K 9 PN 10
ZMA pipes with a cement-mortar coating
and BLS ® sockets. The renovation of the
pipe was carried out from June 008 on in
two sections. 5 trenches (installation and
pulling-in trenches) in the area occupied by
the carriageway and roadside trees on the
Alleenring were needed to allow the units
of pipe to be pulled in on schedule.
Training having been given at the installing
company by employees of the BGW Applications
Engineering Division, the handling
and laying directions for pipe relining
were followed and all the pipes, which
were delivered from Wetzlar straight to
the site in Frankfurt in packs of four, were
pulled in without any problems. Thanks to
the excellent way in which all the parties
involved worked together, the renovation,
which was completed in October 008
with the entry into service of the water
pipeline, was and will remain a lasting success
for the customer, Netzdienste Rhein
Main GmbH.
The Nibelungenplatz on the Alleenring in Frankfurt Installing the Buderus DN 300 ductile pipes Making a BLS ® restrained socket joint

The North Industrial Park
in Leipzig-Plaußig
Drinking water pipeline for developing new sites on an industrial park
Leipzig-Plaußig North Industrial Park is
part of the Northern Area, the most important
industrial development area in the
Leipzig region, and came into being when
action was taken to find a factory site for
the BMW Group. The industrial park consists
of 40 hectares of high-grade sites for
industrial units. The zone at the heart of
the park is the BMW factory and laid out
around this are many other sites for industrial
units. A logistics company which will
be working for BMW was planning to relocate
to the park, so one thing that had to
be completed, by the end of 008, was the
full development of three sites as far as the
supply of water and electricity and other
services was concerned, and also the relaying
of existing pipelines. One part of the
development work was the laying of a DN
1000 long-distance drinking water pipe-
line, the Schwarzer Berg pipeline, which
was completed in September and October
of 008. This long-distance pipeline is
owned by KWL, the Kommunale Wasserwerke
Leipzig GmbH waterworks. Around
140 metres of the existing run of pipeline
had to be abandoned to provide space for
a new storm water retention basin which
ensures that storm runoff can be carried
away from the southern part of the North
Industrial Park without doing any damage.
Ductile cast iron – the right material for
the new drinking water pipeline
It was important to find the appropriate
material for the new 175 metre long run
of pipeline.
After successful negotiations with Kommunale
Wasserwerke Leipzig, BGW was able
to include the contract among its success-
es. In the past, customers in Leipzig had
repeatedly put their trust in the reliable
ductile gas iron pipes and the secure and
flexible BLS ® joints. In the case of the new
section of pipeline, which begins at a section
which was laid back in 006 as part of
the planned widening of the federal autobahn
BAB14, which connects up with the
existing pipeline at a bend below Dingolfinger
Straße, the decision was made to
use ductile cast iron pipes and fittings of
800 nominal size with BLS ® joints. For outside
protection, the choice was to use zinc
coating and the epoxy resin cover coating.
Because of the ease with which the BLS ®
joints could be laid, and also because of the
level terrain, it took just a month to complete
the installation work. The new section
of pipeline went into operation on 10
October 008.
Projects
7

Projects
8
The skiing region of Kožuf, which is situated
close to the border with Greece, lies
at an altitude of 1500 to 00 meters. A
group of private investors has set itself the
goal of creating one of the largest, most
up-to-date and beautiful ski centres in
south-eastern Europe, covering an area of
56 hectares. Every year since 001 work
has been done to expand the ski lifts, the
pistes, the snow making installations and
the accommodation for the tourists who
come here for the skiing. In the first phase
of the project, five surface lifts, one sixseater
chair lift and three four-seater chair
lifts are being built to allow some 1 ,000
skiing enthusiasts to be kept happy every
hour. In addition to this, an all-inclusive ski
resort with hotels and apartments will be
going up on 55 hectares of land. At the
end of the building work there will be 0
pistes – totalling some 60 kilometers in
length – of all levels of difficulty waiting
to be tamed.
As is the case everywhere in the world,
climatic conditions in the mountain region
of Macedonia do not guarantee snow with
100% certainty. To ensure the economic
S n o w f o r M a c e d o n i a . . .
Ductile cast iron pipes from TRM for skiing region of Kožuf
success of the project, snow making installations
are therefore an absolute must for
the investors.
So – curtain up for Tiroler Röhren- und
Metallwerke AG and its ductile cast iron
pipes! These have a proven track record
for snow making installation and have already
demonstrated how high their quality
is innumerable times even under extreme
conditions.
In the summer of 008, , 50 meters of
ductile cast iron pipes of nominal sizes
from 80 to 00 therefore set out on their
journey to the south of Macedonia to be
used as supply pipes for the production of
artificial snow. Also setting out with them
were employees of TRM, to train the local
personnel for the laying work. The laying
of the pipes proved to be “not exactly
easy”, because it was impossible to use
any heavy plant in the steep terrain, so for
the most part the excavators which were
there stood around idle. Sheer muscle
was the order of the day! Digging, laying
and backfilling – all, or most, of this work
had to be done by hand. But thanks to
the brawny Macedonians, the ease with
which VRS-T ® -joint, with its ability to accept
angular deflections of up to 5°, can
be laid and the excellent training giving by
the TRM employees, none of this was any
problem.
On completion of the work, Angel Nakov,
the director of Ski Kožuf, had some
words of praise: “The TRM pipes were
the best thing that could have happened
to us because the laying work was quick
and easy to perform. We were able to do
the work with our own personnel because
the support we got from the applications
engineers from TRM was excellent”.

a n d f o r L a T h u i l e i n t h e A o s t a V a l l e y
“Espace San Bernardo”, one of Europe’s
most beautiful ski resorts, lies in the border
region between France and Italy on the San
Bernardo massif in the Aosta Valley. The
Italian part, La Thuile, where the “Funivie
Piccolo San Bernardo“ ski-lift company
operates, is situated at an altitude of 1441
to 00 metres and has been a favourite
resort for skiing fans since 1948. This was
when people still used to swoop down the
slopes in knickerbockers doing telemark
turns, but it was also the time when the
first single-seater chair lift was built in La
Thuile and also when no-one had to worry
whether there was going to be any snow.
But times have changed; knickerbockers
have disappeared, telemark turns are
gradually coming back into fashion, natural
snow occasionally fails to make an appearance,
skiing has become a mass sport and
it goes without saying that there will be
artificial snow.
In Espace San Bernardo there are 7 ski
lifts that will take around 55,000 people an
hour up to the heights. 74 splendid slopes
and a total of 150 kilometres of runs are
available. It is well situated as far as transport
is concerned – just an hour by car from
Turin. It has 76 snow making machines, of
both the lance and fan types, which make
sure that there is enough snow even when
there is not much of the natural variety!
So for this cross-border ski resort all one
needs is a ski lift pass.
For many years, the operators of the La
Thuile ski resort have put their trust in
supply pipelines from Tiroler Röhren- und
Metallwerke AG. The expansion of snow
making facilities is not an area where any
fanciful experiments are made and unlike
knickerbockers, ductile cast iron pipes
have survived every change in ski sport
and ski resort operation.
In the past year, TRM supplied a respectable
quantity of pipes to the popular ski resort:
about 8,600 metres of snow making
pipelines of diameters from DN 80 to DN
00 to provide a reliable operating pressure
of up to 100 bars were laid without
any problems all over the ski resort in a
very short time.
The high quality of the cast iron pipes and
the simple way in which they can be laid
with the tried and tested VRS-T ® joint made
the decision an easy one for the people responsible.
What was also considered very
advantageous was the fact that the laying
could be done by their own employees. In
this way, the TRM pipes not only helped
to save on costs, but also safeguarded jobs
during the summer months.
People have trusted TRM cast iron pipes in La Thuile for years!
Projects
9

Projects
10
A “ t w i n p a c k ” o f c a s t i r o n p i p e s
o n t h e b a n k s o f t h e r i v e r M a a s
Venlo puts its money on ductile cast iron sewage pipes
In Venlo, the main town in the northern
part of the Dutch province of Limburg,
the “Maaswaard” project, to which the
public response has been very favourable,
has been in the process of implementation
since the beginning of the year. The town
has 90,000 inhabitants and in the south,
apartment blocks, containing more than
100 flats, and a range of social and welfare
services, businesses and surface and
underground carparks are being built on
the banks of the river Maas to the designs
of architects Benthem Crouwel. As part of
the preparatory measures, extensive soil
remediation work has been done on the
site on the floodplain of the Maas and during
this an old wall of the town came to
light. This delighted the municipal archaeologists
in Venlo but the companies doing
underground work were not so happy,
because it meant there were slight delays
before they could begin work.
Then, in November 008, the time had
come. The remains of the town wall gave
up their star role and ductile cast iron pipes
took over. The Ploegam BVcompany could
start laying the pipe, in which there is free
surface flow and which replaces an old pipe
which is no longer serviceable. The company
handling the below ground installation
was very well prepared in advance for
the laying work by the Buderus Applica-
tions Engineering Division. Along its route,
there was provision for the pipe to pass
below the dykes which protect the town
from flooding if high water levels occur in
the Maas. For this reason, the customer,
namely the municipality of Venlo, together
with the Rijkswaterstaat water authority
and the water supplier Waterschapsbedrijf
Limburg, placed the very greatest importance
on a reliable pipe material being used.
Any possibility of damage to the sewage
pipe had to be ruled out in the event of
floods or, if the worst came to the worst,
of a dyke breaking.
In the preliminary negotiations, BGW, together
with its Dutch sales partner SAM-
SON APPENDAGES, was able to convince
the customer of the large safety margins
provided by the ductile cast iron pipes and
the BLS ® joint.
48 metres of DN 1000 ductile cast iron
sewage pipes of wall thickness class K9
were laid. In the past, the sewage treatment
plants have become overloaded at
times of heavy rainfall, and because of this
the decision was made to lay the new pipe
as a twin pipe for a length of 00 metres. In
this way excess rainwater can be conveyed
straight into the Maas through the second
pipe, which acts as an overflow.
The work was successfully completed after
an installation time of about two months.

It was back in 005 that the project for an
improved drinking water supply for the
southern part of the Veľký Krtíš district in
the Slovak Republic was first documented.
Some 0,000 people live in this region,
which is weak in infrastructure and mainly
agricultural. The project was on a large
scale and initially it proved impossible to
get it underway for lack of finance. It was
only late in 007 that the finance for the
project, which will cost 8 million Euros,
became available. 70% of the cost is being
financed from European Union funds.
Construction work began in the first half
of 008 and the current assumption is that
the project will be completed by the end
of 010.
The aim and purpose of this ambitious
project, which is divided into six individual
pieces of construction work, is not only
to improve the regional drinking water
supply but also to allow more logical use
to be made of the drinking water from
the reservoir at Hriñová and the springs
at Luboreč and Opava and to enable the
transporting facilities to be designed for
greater efficiency.
All in all, in the course of the implementation
of the project, ,000 metres of drinking
water pipelines of nominal sizes of DN
500 and DN 400 are going to be laid.
After negotiations on a wide range of
points, Watersystems s.r.o. Bratislava (formerly
Tatra-Armatura s.r.o. Bratislava),
acting as the sole sales partner of Buderus
litinové systémy s.r.o. Beroun (BGC) in the
Slovak Republic, was given the contract to
supply ductile cast iron pipes.
Drinking water supply in the Veľký
Krtíš district in the Slovak Repub-
lic: The EU is providing most of the
finance
Some 30,000 people in 50 municipalities will be benefiting from this 28 million Euro project
ZMU convinced!
Because of the corrosive soils in the Veľký
Krtíš region, a polyethylene coating had
initially been specified for the pipes in the
invitation to tender. However, the experts
at the technical department of BGC had
a better idea and recommended to Watersystems
s.r.o. that it hold discussions
with the customer, the investors and the
planning company to suggest an alternative
which would be better in both technical and
financial terms – namely the ZMU coating
– and that it checks whether special surface
protection was in fact appropriate for all
the sections of the pipeline. Once again, it
was seen how important the Buderus Applications
Engineering Division is as a problem-solver
for the customer, because once
the advantages of the cement mortar coating,
and specially its mechanical load-bearing
capacity, had been demonstrated and
documentary evidence has been shown of
the potential savings on the earth-moving
work, it was easy for the company handling
construction to decide to amend
the requirements profile for the coating.
Also, chemical analysis of the groundwater
revealed that highly corrosive soils were
present along only a third of the route. So
Buderus ZMU pipes were laid in this section
of the pipeline. What are used in the
other sections are pipes with a zinc coat
( 00 g/m²) and a blue epoxy resin cover
coating. The recommendation to opt for
the BLS ® restrained socket point was also
accepted. From May to December of 008,
a total of 16,470 metres of cast iron pipes
were delivered to the site and another
16,5 0 metres will be following this year.
Projects
11

Projects
1
Berlin: A winding road doesn’t put bends
in our pipes
Along the river Havel, close to the Olympic stadium and to the
south of the Heerstrasse, are the lakes which serve as reservoirs
for the Tiefwerder waterworks in Berlin’s Spandau Stadtforst
or city forest. Some 1100 metres of pipes of DN 500 and 600
nominal sizes carrying untreated water needed to be replaced
along a route following a narrow, rather winding, lakeside road.
In the fine, sandy soil, the trench therefore had to be lined at
the advancing end. Access was restricted so the pipes could not
be laid out and stored along the side of the route. As a result
the pipes and accessories were delivered straight to the grounds
of the waterworks and unloaded there. In view of the cost of
cranage, three tractor-trailer units per delivery had to be on the
spot ready to be unloaded at hourly intervals. Not an easy task,
but Buderus’s in-house staff, together with their Berlin haulage
and logistics partner HZ, dealt with it brilliantly. There was no
downtime whatsoever and the six metre long Buderus DIN EN
545 pipes could be quickly and easily installed and securely and
reliably connected. Once again, there was convincing evidence
of how well even curved routes can be tackled with Buderus’s
restrained joints. After connection, the joints could be deflected
through an angle of °, i.e. each pipe could be laid in a position
up to 0 centimeters off the axis of the previous pipe. In this
way, there were no problems in getting the pipeline for untreated
water to follow the slight curves in the road through the forest
and it goes without saying that this reduced the number of fittings
installed. Incoming connections were made via fittings at a hydraulically
beneficial angle of 45°. The entire pipeline is restrained
against thrust loads to the standards of the Berlin water-supply
companies and is also protected against extreme loads from
traffic, for example from heavy forestry vehicles which can get
bogged down in the soft soil of the forest.
Bundesliga Division 2 and the “two-up”
cast pipe
In the summer of 006, FC Augsburg and TUS Koblenz, two football
teams in Germany’s Southern Regional Division, were promoted
to the Bundesliga Division . What this meant, at least for
Koblenz, was that they could expect increasing numbers of fans
and more vehicles at their future games. The existing stadium on
the piece of land known as the “Oberwerth” was only up to the
technical standards of the 1950’s and suddenly, rather than taking
5,000 spectators, it was going to have to take three times that
number. Thing did not look good with the infrastructure either.
Access roads, car-parks, toilets and above all capacious roofed
stands had to be built or, where they already existed, refurbished
at short notice. Places for setting up containerised facilities would
have to be made available for the German Red Cross, the police
and the press and would have to be connected to the water supply
and sewer systems. The city’s leaders and the building authorities
proved to be very flexible when it came to planning and financing
the building work needed. However, there was still one major
hurdle that had to be overcome in this area. The entire stadium
site is situated in water protection zone II of the city of Koblenz’s
most important waterworks and borders directly on water protection
zone I so the stadium meant a “maximum potential hazard
to the water extraction facilities”. The supervisory authority
responsible laid down very tough requirements. The very highest
safety was demanded for the collection and carrying away of both
surface water and sewage. The engineering company handling the
planning – in consultation with the supervisory authority – was instructed
to include only the best and safest equipment that the
market had to offer in its plans for this application. So the die was
cast for Buderus’s ductile cast iron pipes with restrained joints! In
line with DWA (German Association for Water, Wastewater and
Waste) specification A 14 , the sewage pipes actually carrying the
sewage had to be laid in a second pipe acting as a protective outer
shell so that there would be an annular space between the two
pipelines as required for future leak tests. The requirements that
the companies doing the installation work had to meet for the laying
of the pipes were extremely demanding. Nevertheless, thanks
to the easily laid Buderus cast iron pipes and the excellent way in
which all parties involved worked together, the work was done
and provisionally completed smoothly and quickly.
Cast iron pipes were also selected for the new water supply pipelines
which had to be laid.
DN 150, 00, 00, 400, 500 and 600 sewage pipes were used,
as well as a cluster of DN 100 socketed pressure pipes as cableprotecting
pipes, because of the high traffic loads and shallow top
cover during the installation work.

The Tribistovo-Posušje soft loan project
In Posušje, in the canton of West-Herzegovina of the Federation
of Bosnia and Herzegovina, it is not just the supply of drinking
water that is in a bad way. The region also needs a suitable sewer
system and a sewage-treatment plant to allow sewage to be disposed
of. So far, only a small part of the municipality of Posušje
(the name means “district poor in water”) has been connected
to the water supply system. Domestic wells still play a large part
in the supply of water.
If the region were to be brought up to the state of the art and to
be supplied in the future with high quality drinking water, development
work needed to be done on the water supply system. At
the same time work is also being pushed ahead on a conceptual
scheme for the sewer system, including the sewage treatment
plant, to ensure that the routeing of the two systems is optimised.
To allow the project to be implemented, ÖSTAP Engineering &
Consulting GmbH of Vienna worked out a refurbishment and development
project for the water supply system and initiated soft
loan financing. Around .5 million Euros were needed to cover all
the costs for the supply of pipes, for parts of the system, for the
supervision and management of the construction work and also
for the vetting of the economics of the system.
The order for the supply of ductile pipes and joints was placed
with TRM, because the terrain in the region – 90 kilometers to
the north-east of Sarajevo – is difficult and mountainous and this
is where the advantages that the VRS-T ® joint has with regard to
low-cost laying and thrust and tractive restraint can be made the
most of. Between August and December 008, 6, 00 meters
of ductile pipes – 7 lorry-loads – of 400, 00, 50, 00 and 150
nominal sizes were delivered to Posušje.
TRM pipes for Himmelreich hydroelectric
power station
The picturesque village of Freienfeld is situated in the upper Eisack
Valley in South Tyrol. To improve the energy supply to its 1100 or
so households, Flans Energie GmbH has built a small hydroelectric
power station with the lovely name of Himmelreich (“Kingdom of
Heaven” in English) on the little river known as the Sengesbach.
The construction took 1 months and it was commissioned in
October 008 and will have an annual output of 4,51 MWh.
Himmelreich is what is called a “run of the river” hydroelectric
power station, i.e. it has no reservoir because at any given time it
processes, or rather uses, only a small proportion of the water that
goes to form the river. This means that there is no interference
with the natural flow of the water. The water intake structure and
the desanding basin are underground structures and because of
the powerful self-cleaning action of this type of intake the cost of
maintenance is low. The head of water which is used to generate
energy is 50 metres. The water is returned directly to the
Sengesbach.
Ductile cast iron pipes of nominal sizes of DN 500 and DN 600
were used for the pressure pipe, which was laid underground. In
the steep lower region of the penstock the pipes had to be moved
to their destination, in weather which was sometimes very bad, on
a goods-carrying cable car whose cable had been specially installed
for the purpose. In the upper region, the route followed by the
pipe ran almost entirely through rocky terrain. The pipe, whose
overall length is 1,985 metres, is used not only for the power station
but also for the sprinkler irrigations systems employed by the
agricultural concerns in the surrounding area.
Projects
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Projects
14
Trenchless pipe laying
in Salzburg and Wels
Austria is another country where the advantages of trenchless
pipe laying are being discovered and applied to an ever
greater degree. In inner city areas this method of laying is particularly
advantageous, because no cost-intensive digging is
required and interference with traffic can be kept to a minimum.
Vienna played a pioneering role with a number of projects
and other towns and cities are now following its lead. In Salzburg,
an old 00 metre long pipe of grey cast iron has been
replaced by ductile cast iron pipes of DN 100 nominal size
with a cement mortar coating. The company managing the
project decided in favour of the burst lining technique and
carried out the installation work from October to December
of 008.
In Wels in Upper Austria, preference was given to the directional
drilling technique due to the local soil conditions. Here
165 metres of ZMU pipe of 80 nominal size were pulled in.
The company doing the work, Rohr- und Schweißtechnik
GmbH of Marchtrenk, was extremely satisfied with the user
friendly nature of the ductile cast iron pipes when being laid
and with their suitability for trenchless installation.
Coating of fittings at TRM now has GSK
certification
After the new powder coating system went into operation in the
third quarter of 006 and all the teething problems were overcome,
we can now proudly say that a maximum level of quality
with an extremely high standard of repeatability is being achieved
with this fully automatic system. TRM initially attached great importance
to production using the criteria laid down in EN 14901.
Now the company wants to go further and is setting itself the
challenge of coating its range of fittings to “Gütegemeinschaft
Schwerer Korrosionsschutz” (GSK) (Quality Association for
Heavy Duty Corrosion Protection) specifications, which are far
higher than the requirements of EN14901. The Quality Association’s
certificate is the customer’s guarantee of a coating of impeccable
quality and hence of a future-proof solution for supply
networks. As well as the additional in-house monitoring required,
the greatest challenge to TRM, and one that it has met with great
success, was maintaining the minimum coating thickness of 50
µm right across the highly diversified range of fittings. Another
highlight of the system is the inkjet labelling, which ensures that
products are easily traceable.
Quality awareness among European
water suppliers is unusually high
both in respect of the quality of their
water and the condition of their networks
and technical facilities. One
of the most important quality criteria
in this field is reliable protection
against corrosion. For engineer Walter
Kling of Vienna Waterworks,
heavy duty corrosion protection is essential when it comes to the
quality of the technical facilities. With the certification to the GSK
specifications, TRM is demonstrating its own claim to high standards
of quality and awareness of its responsibilities.

Full halls at Pollutec in Lyon
The rd running of the Pollutec environmental exhibition, which
took place from to 5 December 008 at Lyon Eurexpo, exceeded
everyone’s expectations. More than 70,000 trade visitors
from over 100 countries and some ,600 exhibitors were
clear proof that Pollutec can be counted among the world’s biggest
environmental exhibitions. The exhibition showed its international
importance above all by the increase in the numbers of
Brazilian, Czech, Swedish, Spanish, Polish and also North American
exhibitors.
Together with its French partner, SOVAL, BGW set itself the challenge
of showing “the world of the ductile cast iron pipe” in the
right light at this international meeting place for all those with an
interest in environmental technology. As well as the BLS ® demonstration
unit, which has now become a well known attraction,
BGW also showed a ZMU pipe of the massive nominal size of DN
900. As it did at the Smagua in Zaragoza, this giant provoked great
interest among visitors. The eye-catching sight formed the main
attraction and for Silke Hackl, Sales Manager Western Europe,
there was a perfectly good explanation for the interest people
showed: “The cement mortar coating for ductile cast iron pipes
is not very common yet in France and many other countries.
No wonder that our ‘giant with the ZMU’ attracted an immense
amount of attention. At Pollutec we have achieved our goal of
telling both the French and the international markets about the
possibilities that are opened up by the use of the BLS ® joint and
ZMU pipes, especially for trenchless laying. Something that was
particularly noticeable was that there also many visitors from
French-speaking countries abroad, such as in North Africa for
example, who visited our stand.”
The meeting place for infrastructure at
Rotterdam in the Netherlands
For the first time, BGW took a stand, in company with its Dutch
sales partner SAMSON APPENDAGES, at the InfraTech exhibition
in Rotterdam from the 1 th to the 16th of January 009, to
show the range of its products at this national exhibition for the
industry. The main focus was the BLS ® joint and the ZMU pipes.
There were a total of six themes to what was displayed at this infrastructure
show at Rotterdam’s Ahoy exhibition centre, though
the main emphasis was on the water sector. As well as many companies
there were also customers from various authorities showing,
such as water authorities for example.
Manfred Hoffmann, Sales Manager Export, was very satisfied with
the show put on in Rotterdam: “We consciously chose this national
exhibition to make our presence more strongly felt on the Dutch
market. And it was worth doing, because there has been tremendous
interest from visitors and we, together with Samson, have
been able to make some very good contacts.”
Recruitment open day at TU Bergakademie
Freiberg technological university
On the 8th of January it was once again time for the TU Bergakademie
Freiberg to hold its annual open day. Around 70 companies
exhibited at this recruitment day, which is unique in Saxony.
The event was attended by about 000 school children
and students from many different states of Federal Germany,
who found out about the many subjects that can be studied at
the TU Bergakademie Freiberg and the realistic training courses
it offers. Melanie Turek (on the left) and Patricia Spilka (on
the right) travelled to Freiberg with Sascha Furtner, who represented
BSG, to tell visitors
about the study
courses, placements and
career opportunities at
BGW. The enthusiastic
participation of the many
companies and the great
interest shown by the
school children and the
students were a good indication
of the success of
this day for gathering information.
Reports
15

Reports
16
Berlin will once again – from the
0th of March to the rd of
April – be the meeting point
for the national and international
water and waste water
industry. Around 700 foreign and domestic
exhibitors will be showing their latest
products, technologies and services. This
is an increase of more than 5% compared
with the same event in 006. The proportion
of foreign exhibitors, from 6 countries,
is up %. As a result, this event is
the first time that halls 1 to 6, covering
an area of 49,000 square meters, have all
been fully booked. The trend looks similar
with regard to the number of visitors.
After around 6,000 visitors in 006 the
organisers, Messe Berlin, are expecting
about 0,000 this time. The organisers
feel that the crucial factors in this positive
trend are the increasing importance of
water supply and sewage disposal, a need
for modernisation which is considerable
in some countries and, a policy which
has been pursued for years, the systematic
ongoing development of the content
An invitation to
WASSER BERLIN – The meeting point for the water and waste water industry
and infrastructure of this Berlin trade fair.
Among the innovations to be seen at the
upcoming event are the incorporation of
“geofora”, the trade fair for Drill Rig Technology,
Well Drilling and Geothermics, a
Training and Advanced Training Day and
the nomination of a partner country. Bulgaria
will have a large combined stand to
take advantage of the opportunity to show
itself and its goods at the leading European
exhibition devoted to water.
In parallel with the trade fair there will also
be a comprehensive range of conferences.
Some 50 speakers will be reporting on
current issues and developments in more
than 100 research areas.
Buderus and TRM will be showing
in Berlin on a 00 square
metre stand. The cast iron
pipes group is a global player
in the water and waste water
industry and under the motto “The future
is ductile” it will be showing its products
and engineering solutions to provide convincing
proof that it is able to meet new
challenges. It will be using “Wasser Berlin”
as a platform for making new contacts in
the Eastern European market, where the
potential growth predicted by experts on
the water and waste water industry is extraordinary.
Investments running into the
tens of billions are expected there due to
the urgent need to modernise the antiquated
infrastructure for water supply and
sewage disposal.
For the first time, “Wasser Berlin” will be
giving the no-dig specialists an opportunity
to put on a comprehensive show. It is true
that no-dig, the name used for the trenchless
techniques for installing pipelines, has
been developed and used for 0 years,
but because of the increase in built-up

areas in centres of population, the building
of multi-lane roads and the increase in
cost-consciousness and concern for the
environment it is gaining in importance at
absolutely breakneck speed.
The cast iron pipes group will therefore be
making “trenchless laying” the main focus
of its presentation at “Wasser Berlin”, and
will be showing that ductile cast iron pipes
using the BLS ® / VRS-T ® restrained socket
joint are supremely well suited to trenchless
installation. The deflectability of the
joint makes it possible for curves of particularly
tight radiuses to be followed and
it will withstand extremely powerful tractive
forces. Buderus will also be showing
the ZMU pipe as another problem-solver
for all trenchless laying techniques. As a
standardised means of protection for the
exterior of pipes, the outer coating of cement
mortar is particularly well armed
against the mechanical loads and stresses
that occur in trenchless laying.
We can be sure that trade visitors will find
something to interest them about the ductile
cast iron pipes, the BLS ® /VRS-T ® joint
and the cement-mortar coating.
Site Viewing Day on 1 April
To accompany the Fair, the 6th International
Pipeline Symposium organised by
the Berlin-Brandenburg division of the
DVGW (German Technical and Scientific
Association for Gas and Water) will be taking
place on 1 and April. The theme this
year is the particular challenges in pipeline
construction and it will begin in the traditional
way with a site viewing day when
Berliner Wasserbetriebe will invite participants
to visit selected construction sites.
At ten sites, BGW will be showing the outstanding
fitness for purpose of the BLS ®
joint and the ZMU coating. Trenchless laying
techniques will be demonstrated on all
the sites. Visitors will be able to see presspull
techniques, pipe relining, auxiliary pipe
techniques and trenchless re-laying
Vorschau
InterAlpin
Interalpin – The industry’s international meeting
point for Alpine technologies
In Innsbruck trade visitors from all over
the world with an interest in mountain
tourism and alpine infrastructure
will be coming together for Interalpin
which runs from the nd to the 4th
of April to find out about developments in
this increasingly important market.
With a total of 500 exhibitors and 17, 00
visitors from 56 countries, Interalpin 007
beat all previous records and established
itself as the world’s biggest and most important
trade fair for cable car technology,
snowmaking, and snow-clearing vehicles
and equipment. This year the organisers
are expecting another rise in the numbers
of visitors, particularly from Eastern Europe
and Asia. This trend was already apparent
in 007, a particularly striking feature being
the influx of guests from exotic parts of the
world such as Dubai, Brazil, Mexico and
Iran. Even Australians and New Zealanders
were not put off by the long journey. In parallel
with Interalpin, the “Österreichische
Seilbahntagung” (Austrian Cable Car Conference)
will be taking place in Innsbruck
on April 009.
In the fine setting of a 100 square metre
stand, the cast iron pipes group
will be showing not only the tried and
tested ductile cast iron pipes for snow
pipelines but also the DN 50 and 00
socket bends, which are completely new
to the range. Other new products on show
will be the all-socket tees of various nominal
sizes. It will be clear from this that the
range of fittings for snow making is constantly
being optimised to cater for the
many and varied requirements that customers
have.
In Eastern Europe in particular, there are
signs of a boom in new ski resorts which
are being built and “artificial snow” is an
important economic factor. This is why the
cast iron pipes group is expecting to see a
very keen interest being shown in particular
by visitors from this part of the world.
To cater for the wide variety of information
that is going to be asked for, TRM has rewritten
its marketing documents for the
snow and turbine pipes fields and it will be
going into the race properly kitted out with
everything it needs to win.
Reports
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Reports
18
60 years ago Werner Hagenbucher was on
a business trip in Germany and while he
was there Buderus offered him the chance
of representing them in the field of cast
iron pipes. This could be good, he thought,
and on his return to Switzerland he lost no
time in carrying out a study of the market.
Demand had built up during the war
years and the study showed him that the
suppliers in his home country were unable
to meet demand. Werner Hagenbucher
made a quick decision and went to the Zurich
gasworks and got a trial order for 0
meters of DN 00 socketed pipes. When
he went back to Wetzlar for further negotiations
he took this order with him. The
management at Wetzlar clearly found this
such a convincing argument that, despite
his unfamiliarity with the industry and the
modest personal funds that he had, they
made him their representative. This laid
the foundations for TMH and for the collaboration
between the two companies.
The agreement was signed by Buderus on
1 October 1948 and was countersigned
by Hagenbucher on 1 December.
On the 60th anniversary, to celebrate the
6 0 y e a r s o f H a g e n b u c h e r . . .
means 60 years of working well together!
occasion in style, there was a get-together
in Wetzlar. Ulrich Päßler, Managing Director
of BGW, gave a witty celebratory
speech. This speech, delivered with a few
winks and in tones of affection, showed
the special relationship between the two
companies better than any listing of facts
and figures could:
“An occasion like today has to be celebrated
properly. And the speech has to do justice
to the occasion. This is a challenge. The
speech should be fairly serious but not too
formal, and it should bring out the historical
context of the occasion and its economic,
scientific and cultural significance to an adequate
degree.
The question I have therefore devoted my
speech to answering is this ‘What do Shirley
Bassey and TMH have in common?’ That is
the question I would like to get to bottom of
over the next few minutes. To do this – and
it is certainly something we can hardly avoid
on a day like this – we need to look a long
way back into the past: to, let us say, 1948.
In 1948 Shirley Bassey was 11 years old and
a schoolgirl living in Cardiff in Wales. I am
afraid though, that knowing this will not get
us very much further for the moment. In that
same year of 1948, somewhere else in Europe,
that is in Switzerland - and I will gladly
admit that at the time neither Wales nor
Switzerland were really part of Europe – a
far-sighted businessman was founding his
young company. His name was Hagenbucher
and it was no accident that he would later
be the father of Thomas Hagenbucher who is
our guest of honour today. So, Hagenbucher
senior was so far-sighted that at once, that
very same year, he laid the foundations of a
lasting collaboration with another company.
And because he was so far-sighted and because
he was aware of what would be his
lasting legacy, it was not just his son that he
would later name after himself but also his
company, the Hagenbucher company.
The other company was no longer quite so
young by the way – it had already seen a
good 200 years go by. It was called Buderus
and had, for just as long, had its company
headquarters in Wetzlar. There are times
when I even have my doubts whether Wetzlar
is in Europe. These days, Hesse and its
already proverbial Hessian political condi-

At the celebration to mark the 60th anniversary, Ulrich Päßler, Managing Director of BGW, presents
Thomas Hagenbucher, the owner of the TMH company, with a commemorative plaque
tions, where it was impossible to form a governing
coalition, make me particularly unsure.
But I learnt that the company was located
in Central Hesse here on the very day
I started work. But what has that got to do
with Shirley Bassey, you will ask? Absolutely
nothing!
Well, the people at Buderus were no less farsighted
and right from the start they secured
the Hagenbuchers’ loyalty by offering attractive
prices. A ridiculous 63 cents is what was
asked at the time, in 1948, for a metre of
150-size pipe and for a metre of 100-size
it was even as low as 47 cents. Since then,
this aggressive pricing policy has become a
characteristic feature of the collaboration
between Buderus and Hagenbucher. For the
youngsters amongst us and those who are
particularly keen on history, I should mention
that the cents there are not cents of a Euro
but cents of the US American dollar.
That being the case, you can see that everything
was rather a lot cheaper then. Initially
there was supervision by the occupying powers
but as time moved on the business relationship
which had been quickly established
no longer needed supervision, and this sub-
sequently allowed Buderus to make changes
– though only marginal ones – to its pricing
policy. What Buderus achieved with its
pricing policy, Hagenbucher achieved with
its product policy. The Hagenbuchers were
among the avant garde with constant innovations,
and these in some ways became
characteristic of this memorable business relationship:
Let us just consider the cementmortar
coating which, for some unfathomable
reason, the Swiss still obstinately insist
on calling ‘fibre cement mortar’: Thanks
to the efforts made by the Hagenbuchers,
which were equally obstinate, this type of
coating has not just developed into the Swiss
standard for municipal water supply. No,
due not least to the Swiss avant garde called
Hagenbucher, it has now blossomed into a
key strategic product at Buderus as a whole.
No wonder then that the situation with the
business relationship I mentioned is like that
of the well-known dog owner who grew to
look more and more like his pet: I think it is
no exaggeration to say that today the relationship
between THM and Buderus has become
just like – and let me stress the name
– the cement mortar coating: it has a thick
skin, is rugged and will stand up to stress,
and has been left largely undamaged by attacks
and influences from outside.
There has however been at least one outside
influence that has undoubtedly strengthened
this business relationship. And is it just by
chance that this innovation came originally
from Switzerland? And is it just by chance
that it is another technology that has become
a key strategic product for Buderus?
No, nor can it be any accident that its essential
features have become just as typical of
the relationship between Buderus and TMH
Full steam ahead into the next 60 years!
as have those of the coating I mentioned before
which everyone, or almost everyone,
calls a cement mortar coating! It is not without
pride that I feel, on this day, that I can
call the relationship between Buderus and
Hagenbucher a ‘joint’ friendship which is not
only ‘positively engaged’ but also does not
suffer from any kind of ‘restraints’! A ‘joint’
friendship of this kind will withstand any sort
of pressure test. For those involved it really is
very easy to ‘handle’ and should there ever
be any unavoidable ‘angular deflections’, it
does not need any ‘external support’. These
are something this remarkable ‘joint’ friendship
can stand up to all by itself!
It has been an incredible 60 years during
which this ‘joint’ friendship has stood
the test. I would like to extend my heartfelt
thanks to all those who have worked to
foster this ‘joint’ friendship and who hopefully
will continue to do so for a long time
yet – and not least I would like to thank all
the employees of TMH Hagenbucher and all
the former and present managers, without
whom this wonderful story could never have
been written!
We at Buderus know that cast iron pipes,
particularly ones with cement mortar coatings,
and restrained joints may have a life
of well over a hundred years. This being the
case, after 60 years, we’re really still almost
at the beginning.
The 60th anniversary of a marriage is usually
called a ‘diamond wedding’. And what was it
that Shirley Bassey, that little lass from Cardiff
in Wales, later on found out?:
“Diamonds are forever!”
Thank you all!”
Reports
19

Reports
0
H o m e l y a n d y e t c o s m o p o l i t a n
“The character of Berne is above all that of an administrative centre
and a centre for study. It has lots of good libraries and many
educated citizens but life is permeated through and through by a
petit bourgeois sentiment. Berne is an extraordinarily ‘democratic’
city – every day, the wife of the republic’s senior civil servant
beats the carpets on her balcony; but it is the carpets, this creation
of cosy ‘homeliness’, that concern the women of Berne to
the exclusion of everything else”. This character study of the
Swiss capital, which was written in 191 , need not be wrong simply
because it comes from the wife of Lenin, who was preparing
for the Russian revolution there with her husband and who, incidentally,
had herself been operated on there by a Swiss holder of
the Nobel Prize for medicine.
The city was founded in 1191 and even today, with its townscape
from the middle ages and the renaissance, it is still full of bourgeois
cosiness. Since 198 , the old town, with its typical arcades,
known as “Lauben” or “arcades”, has been a UNESCO World
Cultural Heritage site. The city on the river Aare got its name,
the saga tells us, from its founder, the Duke of Zähringen, who is
supposed to have said to his followers: “Go into the oak forests.
The first beast that you slay shall give the town its name!” The
hunters were successful in killing a bear and so “Bear” became
“Berne“. The language spoken is Berndeutsch or Berne German,
The Swiss capital has a lot to offer
a dialect of High Alemannic (the Swiss variety of German).
Many artists and scientists have found the atmosphere of Berne
to their liking. One famous son of the city is Albert Einstein, who
was given his first job at the patent office in 190 as a “technical
expert rd class“. The well known artist Paul Klee also worked
there for a long time.
But Berne does not just live on its past. The city, with its 1 9,000
inhabitants, has a flourishing industry producing health care products
and pharmaceuticals. The foodstuffs industry too is strongly
represented. “Toblerone” chocolate is a product of Berne. And
of course it goes saying that there are many banks and international
organisations in Berne.
And the people of Berne love any sort of festivity. A typical example
is the “Zibelemärit” (the Zwiebelmarkt or Onion Market).
Visitors from all over Switzerland and neighbouring countries feel
the exuberant mood and this gives the market a festival atmosphere.
And let’s not forget the so-called “miracle of Berne” in 1954,
something that the older generation at least, and not just the German
speakers amongst them, like to look back on. This was not
an appearance of the Virgin Mary but the : scored against Hungary
by the German national football team, who became the unexpected
world champions because of this win.

A model BLS ® for the mayor of Bilbao
Francisco Domínguez of Construtec welcomed to the
town hall of the Basque metropolis
On the 15th of January, D. Iñaki Azkuna, the mayor of Bilbao, met
Francisco Domínguez, the CEO of our Spanish partner Construtec,
to get a idea of the many and varied advantages of ductile cast
iron pipes and the BLS ® joint. The BLS ® joint is right for demanding
applications and to show this and for other characteristics to
be realistically assessed, Domínguez brought a model with him,
which he used to explain the operation of the joint.
The town of Bilbao has a population of 50,000 and the town
council is keen to improve the drinking water supply. Over the
past few years an exemplary programme to clean up the townscape
has been carried out and the improvement in the water
supply fits in well with the aims of this programme. Construtec’s
new marketing strategy is to direct the thinking of decision makers
towards safety and long life and in line with this strategy
Domínguez made it clear that the sustained efficiency of ductile
cast iron as a material is considerably better than that of other
pipe materials. “The guaranteed lifespan of our pipes is 70 years”,
he reported to the interested civic leader, adding that with special
outer coatings and internal linings the expected life of our ductile
pipes could be increased to 140 years. Moscow, he informed the
mayor of Bilbao, had already decided to renovate its water supply
networks with ductile pipes. The Construtec CEO drew particular
attention to the ZMU pipe and described the advantages of
the cement-mortar coating, which allows pipes to be laid in soils
no matter what the corrosiveness. Environmental concerns and
economic considerations are both making the trenchless pulling
in of pipes increasingly important and this pipe, he said, is proving
to be ideal for this method of installation.
Domínguez stressed the successful collaboration with Buderus
Giesserei Wetzlar which has been going on for some years now.
He also gave the mayor the latest issue of inFORM, in which
there is a detailed report on Bilbao and Construtec. It was not
just Spanish impulsiveness but the convincing presentation that
prompted the mayor to reach for his mobile phone while the
meeting still going on. He wanted to tell the town council responsible
for the water supply what he had learnt and to arrange a further
meeting with Domínguez.
A revolving pipe puts the sense of balance out
of kilter
One more attraction added to the Optikparcours in
Wetzlar
After more than a year’s preparation, the time finally came on 17
November 008: This was the day of the opening ceremony for
“Optokinetisches Gleichgewicht” (Optokinetic Balance), a special
attraction sponsored by BGW and the Feldmann company for
the Wetzlar Optikparcours (a tour route through Wetzlar taking
visitors to sites and attractions highlighting the town’s association
with optics). A giant ductile cast iron pipe acts as a revolving tunnel
through which a walkway runs. The revolving movement of
the pipe takes the capabilities of the eye to their limits and the
eye loses its orientation. The vestibular system in the inner ear,
which gives us our sense of balance, then comes into action to
regulate, and the visitor can thus leave the tunnel without suffering
any ill effects. However, after a short time anyone who walks
through the pipe on the walkway will find themselves swaying.
The special attraction, which cost 00,000 Euros, has been sited
in the Hintergasse, right on the bank of the river Lahn, and its
bright colouring alone makes it a striking sight. The group of graffiti
artists known as steps have turned the pipe into an “attraction
with a glow”.
During the opening ceremony Stefan Weber, Managing Director
of BGW, made it clear that by providing the cast iron pipe for the
Optikparcours, BGW wanted to express the close connections
that it has with the region.
L. to r.: Wetzlar’s Lord Mayor Wolfram Dette and Stefan Weber, Managing
Director of Buderus Giesserei Wetzlar GmbH, during the opening ceremony of
“Optokinetisches Gleichgewicht”, the new attraction for the Optikparcours
Reports
1

About us
T R M i n v e s t s s i x m i l l i o n E u r o s
An interview with Günter Fuhry, CEO of Pipe and Pile International S.A.
Mr Fuhry, you’ve been CEO of Pipe
and Pile International S.A., the parent
company of our group of companies
since the 1st of October 2008. Have
you settled in well with the “foundrymen”,
because people do tend to think
of them as something of a race apart?
I’ve settled in very well. I moved house to
Tyrol between Christmas and New Year
and almost all the crates are now unpacked.
It will still be some time though before I’ll
know where everything is.
The “foundrymen” who I have got to know
so far I find very friendly and competent.
Over the next few months I would like to
get to know even more of our employees as
we work together on important matters.
What is your view of the current economic
situation and the prospects for
the medium term?
As we see every day on television and in the
newspapers, the situation that we have to
contend with in the economy as a whole is
a difficult one, and we too are not being left
unscathed by it. At our site in Wetzlar we
had to cut back considerably on production
in December and January. In Hall, production
had to be scaled back in the smelting
department because of reduced working
hours at Guss Komponenten GmbH. But
whining about how bad things are is not
going to help; we are all under pressure to
do everything we can to cope with the situ-
ation. Our employees and the representatives
of the workforce are working well
with us and this is enabling us to respond
flexibly to the challenges; I too would like
to say a big thank you for this.
All in all, we can assume that we, as a company
whose products and services go into
the infrastructure, will not be so hard hit as
for example the automotive industry and
its suppliers. Adverse effects caused by
project deferrals should be compensated
for by the positive effects of programmes
for work on the infrastructure. However,
the best possible service to our customers
and the exploitation of every possible
means of improving our costs are more
important now than they ever were. I believe
and expect that all the employees in
our company will exert themselves to the
full to become even stronger and better.
The management and the owners are convinced
that together we will meet the challenges.
One of the things that shows this
confidence is the fact that in Hall we are
continuing to implement our major investment
of six million Euros without any cuts.
TRM is investing around six million Euros
in expanding the foundry. How far
has the project progressed?
Let’s start below ground, because the
project kicked off initially, in June 008,
with the preparations for the construction
of a new building. The relaying work on the
facilities for the supply of water and other
media had to be done before anything else.
This was followed, about two months later,
by the work on the foundations. We were
able to use our own product, the ductile
piles, for this. This was very reassuring,
because we ourselves are the people who
really know how excellent our cast piles
are. TRM piles are a secure foundation for
anything. Including the new investment.
Why did piles have to be used on the
construction site in Hall?
Well, the building has basements below
it and because of the very confined conditions
it was therefore not only helpful
but necessary for a secure foundation to
be created. What we decided on for the
construction of our new building was the
pressure-grouted pile system. What this
means is that liquid concrete was forced
into the hollow interior of the pile at high
pressure. As the pile was just being driven,
the concrete then wrapped itself around
the pile on the outside and formed a surrounding
sheath of concrete several decimeters
thick. It thus increased the surface
area of the pile and keyed itself into the
ground.
How many piles were installed?
Compared with other sites which have already
been reported on in inFORM, not
very many. To be exact, 50 of them of a

diameter of 118 millimeters. The comparison
with other sites doesn’t work of course
because if you remember that the Grimming
Therme thermal spa in Bad Mittern-
dorf needed piles for 40,000 square metres
of land, that is not something that can be
compared with our ‘tiny’ site. At Bad Mitterndorf,
if all the piles delivered to the site
had been laid end to end they would have
covered a distance of 0 kilometers.
How large is the building and how will
it be equipped when the building work
is completed?
Our new building has an area at ground
level of about 900 square metres and, if all
the stories are included, a total floor area
of ,000 square metres. The total volume
of the new building is 7, 40 cubic metres. It
looks as though we shall be completing the
building work in March. After that, all the
new production equipment, the technical
services such as the cooling and hydraulic
systems, the electrical system, the air-conditioning
and dust removal systems and,
of course, the necessary office space and
amenity rooms for the employees in this
department will be accommodated in the
building. My colleague Max Kloger will have
The new building for the foundry
for centrifugal pipe casting stands on piles
something to say about the details of the
equipment and its significance for our future
success in a future issue of inFORM.
What about success? Let’s stick to the
piles for the moment. Are driven piles
already a success story in your opinion?
Yes, in fact our cast pile has already had
what would generally be seen as a ‘success
story‘, but this story is very far from
being over. On the contrary – there is a
steady growth in the demand for secure
foundations. The sales figures for piles have
quadrupled in the past few years and we
have not neglected to give some thought to
possible new uses. With their use as what
are called energy piles for extracting geothermal
energy we can see the beginnings
of a very interesting and forward-looking
technology. At this very moment we are
checking to see how we can make a further
increase in our production capacity by collaboration
between the Hall and Wetzlar
sites.
Finally, we would like to ask you where
you think the next success stories are
going to be?
It is clear that the main area where the
future success stories are going to take
place is that of application solutions for
our customers. To an increasing degree,
customers do not just see us as suppliers
of pipes but also expect professional solutions.
We of course are catering for this
desire by greatly expanding our engineering
services in this area. “Trenchless” will
be one of the magic words of the future in
this case. You can already see this simply
from the fact that on the site day at this
year’s “Wasser Berlin” we shall be showing
ten trenchless laying operations using
different methods of laying. In Austria too
people are realising the advantages of this
method of installation.
In central Europe, energy policy and environmental
considerations are making hydroelectric
power increasingly important
as an alternative, ‘home-grown’ source of
energy. It is not just since the latest crises
of supply that we have seen a massive potential
for growth in the sales of our turbine
pipes. Regions where there are sufficiently
large differences in altitude will be systematically
exploiting the opportunities offered
by hydroelectric power. As well as the
Alpine region this also includes countries
such as Spain and Norway.
In the snowmaking field we shall be making
further advances internationally, because
at all the world’s skiing resorts the
certainty of snow is now the success factor.
Completely new skiing resorts are being
built at the moment, particularly in Eastern
Europe, and these are all putting their
money on the advantages of making extra
artificial snow. This is another development
in which we want to play a major
role. Trenchless laying, snowmaking, turbines
or energy piles are all good example
to show that we are continuing to move
in the direction of application solutions for
very demanding customers. This is a path
we shall resolutely be continuing to follow
in other fields too.
Mr Fuhry, thank you for talking to us.
About us

About us
4
Welcome!
Our new members of staff at BGW and TRM
Leon Bauer
Leon Bauer, born 1979, has
been working as operations
manager at B.P.S. Dubai since
1 November 008. Having
completed his master’s degree
in international business
studies at the University
of Maastricht in Holland,
his first position was as assistant
to the executive management
in a Hamburg company
dealing with aircraft passenger
cabins. Following this, in
006, he took up the position
of sales and marketing manager
with VW Universal Motors
Ltd in Accra in Ghana
and while there made a major
contribution to boosting VW’s
sale figures in the African market. At B.P.S. Dubai, Leon Bauer is
responsible not only for the planning of sales and turnover and
the co-ordination of procurement between suppliers, B.P.S. and
customers but also marketing activities, e.g. the organising exhibitions.
Unfortunately, his favourite hobby – handball – is not all
that popular in Dubai so instead he spends his free time playing
football and basketball.
.
Ruth Freund
Ruth Freund, born 198 , has
been working in the accounts
department since 1 January.
She assists the team both
with accounts payable and accounts
receivable. After attending
secondary school, she
successfully took a training
course to become a trained
clerical worker in office communications
with the Sebold
sanitary ware wholesalers
near Aschaffenburg. She then
worked for seven years as an
accounts payable officer with
Basler Fashion in Goldbach.
The move to BGW has meant some changes and challenges for
Ruth Freund. Not only has she moved house to Tiefenbach, but
she will also be starting her advanced training to become a certified
accountant in the spring. In her leisure time she enjoys hiking
and jogging and she also has the responsible task of acting as
youth leader at the Sailauf Music Association.
Susanne Lorz
Since 1 January, Susanne Lorz,
born 1964, has been a clerical
officer assisting the International
Sales team. Her tasks cover
the handling of quotations and
orders for the Middle East, the
Indian sub-continent and neighbouring
countries, Africa, and
North and South America and
also the handling of customs
formalities for and the monitoring
of electronic exporting
under ATLAS. Having successfully
completed her training as a
trained industrial clerical worker
at Buderus AG, she transferred
to the export department as a
clerical officer. Following the
birth of her two children, Susanne
Lorz was a clerical officer with responsibility for synthetic
leather sales. In 001, she changed jobs to Buderus Heiztechnik
(or Bosch Thermotechnik GmbH as it is today) and gained some
initial experience in the handling of orders for the region embracing
the Middle East, the Indian sub-continent and neighbouring
countries. Susanne Lorz likes to send some of her leisure time in
the gym and also enjoys reading.
Christoph Obkircher
Since 16 February 009, Christoph
Obkircher, born 1977, has
been adding his strength to our
field sales force in the north of
Italy, concentrating on South
Tyrol and Trentino, for the sale
of products for local authorities.
On completing his studies at a
technical school, he took a job
with Eppan district authority
and after three years he began
his varied range of activities as
a surveyor, site manager and
purchasing manager with a local
building firm. Alongside this career,
there was no let up in the
further training he took and in
005 he passed the state examination allowing him to practice as
a self-employed surveyor.
Being an Italian citizen, Christoph Obkircher’s chief passion outside
work is of course football, and he plays for a local club.

Dirk Peter
Dirk Peter, born 196 ,
has been working since 1
February as a member of
BGW’s field sales force for
the Rhein-Ruhr area.
After leaving school, he
trained as a clerical officer
in wholesaling with
the wholesalers Georgi
& B. Sanitär- & Heizungsgroßhandel
in Dortmund.
Following his military
service, this native of
Dortmund worked for
nine years as a clerical officer
in the sales and purchasing
department of
the Eick GmbH company
(a company selling pipes
and building materials). He was responsible there for customer
groups comprising building materials and sanitary ware retailers
and public utilities. In 199 he moved to the Alphacan Omniplast
subsidiary of Arkema GmbH in Ehringshausen and worked there
as a field salesman.
In his free time you will find Dirk Peter walking his dogs and he
is also a keen swimmer.
Roland Satlow
On 1 January 009 Roland
Satlow, born 198 ,
was welcomed to TRM
as a production team assistant.
Born in Carinthia
and after attending the
Perau grammar school in
Villach, he studied metallurgy
at the University of
Metallurgy and Mining in
Loeben, where he specialised
in foundry science
and thermal engineering.
He is now facing the challenges
posed in TRM’s
production department.
In the course of his work
he is busy, amongst other things, with the project to optimise wall
thicknesses and with analyses to accompany the smelting process.
In his time away from work you will often find him out in
the great outdoors because he is an enthusiastic devotee of both
winter sports and water sports.
Klaus Emrich is taking over as technical works
manager at BGW
On 1 April, Klaus Emrich, born 1960, will be taking over as BGW’s
technical works manager and one of the things on his to-do list will
be the optimisation of its production processes.
After training as a maintenance and repair fitter and completing
a period of fixed-term professional service as a soldier, he first
worked in the machine repair shop at the then Buderus AG in
Lollar with the aim of gaining the practical experience required to
train as a state certified mechanical engineer at the Fachschule für
Technik in Butzbach. On successfully completing his course as an
engineer and gaining his qualification to take a university degree
course in 1989, Klaus Emrich became responsible for the servicing
and repairing of the production facilities
at a local company specialising in mechanical
engineering and surface treatment
and finishing. At the same time
he studies for a degree in mechanical
engineering at a technical university. In
1997 he was seconded to Cameroon
(in Africa) under the auspices of the
Arbeitsgemeinschaft für Entwicklungshilfe
(Consortium for Development
Aid) of Cologne and worked there as
an instructor and workshop manager
in the commercial/technical field (metal
and metalwork). Following this he completed
an enhancement course in production
sciences at Cranfield University
in England. In 00 he was a project manager at the Alexander
Binzel Schweißtechnik company and amongst other things took
over the development of a joint-venture production company in
China. Since 1 February 005 he has been works manager at Nexans
Kabelmetal Nigeria Plc.
He enjoys spending his leisure time out in the country with his wife
and two children. His hobbies are running and mountain hiking.
Andreas Weiler – New export manager at
TRM
With TRM’s previous export manager Martin Höchtl having started
his own business in December last year, Andreas Weiler took
over managing exports as of 16 December 008. As mentioned
in the last issue of inForm, Andreas Weiler has had years of experience
in a variety of functions in the sales area including at sales
manager level and thus has the tools he needs to cope successfully
with the challenges faced in our foreign
markets. He will be focussing his
efforts mainly on the potential for
growth which exist in the markets of
south-eastern Europe and will be concentrating
particularly on developing
our relationships with district and regional
water suppliers and with our local
sales partners. With the support of our
colleagues from Hall, another main focus
of his work will be to continue the
development of our snowmaking business
in the region.
About us
5

About us
6
An appointment made to
tidy things up:
Action Day in Wetzlar
At the end of the day, tidiness and good spirits came out on top
BGW’s second Action Day took place on 1 November 008 and
if a slogan were going to be invented for it in retrospect it would be
“Clear out whatever you can”. At p.m., around 50 members of
staff from administration and sales met in the showroom. The factory
staff did not take part in this Action Day because of the many
extra shifts which were worked in 008. The Managing Directors
Ulrich Päßler and Stefan Weber, who also gave a helping hand with
the work to very good effect, welcomed the volunteers and once
everybody had been divided into groups things could get going.
The Haus der Technik, the gatehouse, the main warehouse and the
separator warehouse were turned upside down. What had to be
done was to get rid of things that were no longer of any use and
to tidy up the records and archiving department. So, there was a
wholesale clearout and many documents which no longer needed
to be kept because the relevant period had expired found their
way into the 0 containers which had been set up. By the end
of the grand tidying operation these were chock-full. Cabinets of
office supplies and individual offices too were put into order. The
order of the day was to get rid of it or give it a good clean. Everybody
felt the time had been well spent – and it passed in a flash
– and despite the chaos of working together, or perhaps because
of it, people had a lot of fun.
When tidiness finally emerged victorious at 6 p.m., there was also
a substantial evening meal. Everyone rested and recovered over
chili con carne and potato soup, stayed to chat for a while and then
went off for a well-deserved weekend.
To sum up: plenty was done, but there’s still plenty waiting for
the next Action Day!

The improvements system
at Tiroler Guss
A report on 2007 to 2008
At TRM, like at GKG, the “STOP sign” scheme was launched on
4 January 007 with training for all the employees. Almost 180
written “STOP signs” were received; clear proof of the potential
there was for the scheme. However, the large number of suggestions
meant that it was no simple matter to get them processed.
Then, in the months that followed, all sorts of difficulties arose and
the whole scheme almost broke down completely. Then, in July
007 a package of measures for bringing the scheme back to life
were drawn up by the steering committee for the improvements
system at TG and after the works holidays these were successfully
implemented in a way that could, above all, be sustained. At
the same time, the core teams began work and a great deal of
effort was put into the sponsorships. Special mention should also
be made of the two RAMMA DAMMA litter-clearing days, where
some things may have been turned upside down, but the emphasis
was quite clearly on having fun. Both the days went off very satisfactorily.
Then, in 008, it was up to the seven core teams and the
overall energy team. Their activities started with a presentation of
goals for the individual business areas, which was attended by the
board of management and the works council. As well as the excellent
work achieved by the core teams in 008, large numbers of
new “STOP signs” were dealt with, almost 100 SOS sponsorships
were granted and of course there was another RAMMA DAMMA
day. In this way a great deal of progress was made in moving
from a pure employees’ suggestion scheme for improvements to
a comprehensive system for managing ideas. A total of 505 “STOP
signs” have been logged to date and 410 of these have been fully
processed, of which 195 have been given a prize. In savings, the
overall benefit achieved has been 0.5 million Euros and the bright
boys and girls amongst us have received prizes totalling 65,500
Euros. The main focuses in 009 will be the introduction of a new
database to make the day-to-day work on “STOP signs” easier for
everyone, the company-wide granting of SOS sponsorships and
the optimising of the work of the core teams.
Also, as from 1 February 009 the function of co-ordinator will
be taken over by Klaus Marksteiner who, as well doing his main
job as a work scheduler, will also now be seeing to the further
development of the improvements system at TG.
We look forward to stacks of new suggestions in 009.
Markus Wenzel (on the left) and Bernhard Haller (on the right) are pleased
with the prize they are being presented with by Dietmar Fischer, head of human
resources at TRM.
Anniversaries
40 years with the company
Buderus Giesserei Wetzlar GmbH
Mario D‘Aveta, on .1.
Erwin Gombel, on 0.1.
25 years with the company
Tiroler Röhren- und Metallwerke AG
Tobias Mader, on 0. .
Josef Knapp, on 1. .
Imprint
Published by:
The executive management of Buderus Giesserei Wetzlar GmbH and the
board of management of Tiroler Röhren- und Metallwerke AG
Editors:
Dietmar Fischer, Iris Reinhardt, Elvira Sames-Dickopf
Contributors to this issue:
Florian Althaler, Juraj Barborik, Rene Bosman, Francisco Domínguez,
Luca Frasson, Günter Fuhry, Silke Hackl, Manfred Hoffmann, Sigrid
Lettau, Claudia Mair, Andreas Moser, Wolfgang Muigg, Harald Oster,
Ulrich Päßler, Lutz Rau, Wolfgang Rink, Roland Satlow, Thomas
Schleicher, Andreas Schreitel, Stefan Sterr, Melanie Turek,
Andreas Weiler
Design, typesetting and litho plates:
K13 Medien, Wetzlar
Picture credits/sources:
Page 18, photo on left: Wasser Berlin; page 22, photo at top:
Daniel Schwen, photo at bottom centre: Hans Peter Loosli
Except where otherwise stated, rights in photos, drawings and other representations
are held by Buderus Giesserei Wetzlar GmbH and Tiroler
Röhren- und Metallwerke AG.
Printed by:
Druckerei Nejedly GmbH, Friedrichsdorf
Editor’s address:
inFORM
Sophienstraße 52-54, D-35576 Wetzlar
Telefon: +49(0) 64 41 49 14 90 Telefax: +49(0) 64 41 49 14 97
E-Mail: inform@guss.buderus.de
© Buderus Giesserei Wetzlar GmbH and
Tiroler Röhren- und Metallwerke AG
Next issue: 15 July 2009
About us
7

Come and see us at Wasser Berlin, hall 5.2B, stand 402
“An interim pipeline laid above ground in South Saxony
– another case where Buderus’s BLS ® joint system, quick
and easy to connect as it is, has shown its reliability!”
Wolfgang Rink of the Applications Engineering Division
of Buderus Giesserei Wetzlar GmbH
www.gussrohre.com