As a recreation area, Bannalp in Switzerland is very popular with tourists and locals alike. With circular hiking routes and the Alpine lake, the area is attractive especially to hikers in the summer.

In the winter too, with the small ski resort and many possibilities for tourers, Bannalp is not to be overlooked. The high valley is accessible via a 15-seater aerial tramway, which carries guests from Wolfenschiessen to the summit station at 1,724 m. The cableway was constructed in 1970 and is now over 50 years old. To guarantee reliable operation in the coming years, electromechanical refurbishment has been undertaken by INAUEN-SCHÄTTI AG.

Scope of performance

The aim of the Fell-Chrüzhütte cable aerial cableway upgrade was to bring the drive unit and system controller up to the latest standard. Power is now provided by a low-maintenance, 75-kW, three-phase motor, which operates the adopted gear unit via the new cam coupling.

The brake drum has been replaced with a brake disc / flywheel, which is now operated by a hydraulically controlled operating brake. The welded drive and second ary sheaves had to move aside for the full- steel material discs.

The new emergency drive is an electrical drive (three-phase motor with gear unit), which is used instead of a VW motor. In an emergency, the new emergency drive can be swung in and power the drive pulley directly via a cog wheel. The power is supplied from an independent emergency generator. In the course of replacement of the complete control system, various monitoring switches were also replaced and thus brought up to date.

Short upgrade time

Because of the heavy use for tourism, the upgrade time had to be kept as short as possible. After business stopped on the last day of October 2022, the upgrade began. Acceptance by the Federal Office of Transport took place in the week before Christmas, which meant that the first guests could be transported to Bannalp again on time at the start of the Christmas holidays.