Thrill seekers have been known to wait in line for 10 hours to try out a new rollercoaster ride. This happened when Universal debuted its latest blockbuster attraction in Orlando, Florida – a three-minute experience, which took nearly two years to construct. When rides like this cost up to US $300 million (about €276 million) to develop, amusement park owners must be sure about a new design before committing to building it. They must also think about running and maintenance costs.

Indeed, rollercoaster development is a careful balancing act between enticing thrill seekers and keeping build costs in check; optimizing ride performance without compromising safety; and maximizing uptime to turn over a profit. It’s something Simone Bernardini, CEO of the Italian amusement parks and rides engineering company Extreme Analyses Engineering, knows all too well and it’s why he wanted to test an innovative approach to design and create ride parts using simulation and additive manufacturing.  

Bernardini believes these technologies hold the key to dramatically bringing rollercoaster development and running costs down. And he’s proven it, using the 3DEXPERIENCE platform on cloud to design, simulate and then 3D print rollercoaster components in a fraction of the time and cost compared to traditional methods.

“With simulation and additive manufacturing, it takes around three to four months to create a train,” Bernardini said. “It takes double that with the traditional approach and uses far more energy.”

Building on the success it has achieved with this approach so far, the company is now looking to demonstrate its lightweight 3D-printed parts on a real moving rollercoaster.

Read the full story to discover exactly how Extreme Analyses Engineering is taking advantage of the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to create rollercoaster parts in entirely new ways, lowering production, operational and maintenance costs, and enhancing ride safety.