Headquartered in Pettenbach in Upper Austria, Danner Maschinenbau GmbH has been serving a growing base of satisfied customers since its foundation in 1980.

Whether with their turbines, hydrodynamic screws, hydraulic steelwork engineering or revitalisation work, Danner’s team of technicians have consistently lived up to their customers’ expectations. They have also proven their experience and know-how in weir gate systems, which allows them to provide ideal solutions to suit any facility. By now, word of this high level of professional performance has spread beyond Austria.

No matter what the customer requirements, Danner Maschinenbau GmbH construct and manufacture all their hydropower weir gate components in-house. This includes everything from weir baffles and radial gates with attached control flaps to various kinds of sliding or roller gates. Over the years, the mechanical engineering firm with its team of 58 employees has built up a reputation that reaches well beyond Upper Austria. Today, more than 400 customers from Austria and abroad rely on their extensive technical knowledge and experience. Apart from facilities in Austria, numerous power plants in Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, the Czech Republic and Iceland carry the hallmark of Danner technology.

40 M WEIR OVERFLOW IN THE STODERTAL
A perfect example of how to integrate a power plant into the surrounding landscape is the Tambergau facility, located not far from Pettenbach in the Hinterstoder region. Here, the water proceeds from the intake at the naturally designed overflow crest to a nonpressure channel and on to the power house, which resembles a residential building. In 2008 Danner manufactured and installed a wide range of equipment for the power station, which has a standard capacity of between 2.5 and 3 GWh. The items delivered and installed included, among others, a flap gate, a discharge sluicegate, the segmental valve, the intake gate for the residual water turbine, the steel lining of the stilling basin, and the fine rack. Danner also renovated the existing gate structure in the non-pressure channel to put it back into good working order.

SUCCESSFUL HIGH-WATER CONCEPT
Hydropower plant Möderbrugg in the Pölstal region in the Austrian province of Styria was equipped by Danner with a massive fish belly gate, which also eliminated residents’ concerns about possible floods. A gate measuring 14 m x 4 m was constructed and installed to ensure an efficient discharge of flood water. The entire structure is designed for discharging the water of floods with a return period of 150 years. Overall, around 2,000 cubic metres of concrete were used for weir construction alone. In addition, Danner also supplied the entire hydraulic steelwork structures, including the spillway gate with attached weir baffle and the intake and fish pass gates, as well as a fully automated telescopic trash rack cleaner. Hydropower plant Möderbrugg was connected to the grid in October 2013 and generates around 7 GWh of clean energy per year.

THE BIG CHALLENGE: FLOOD PROTECTION
Working on a hydropower project in Hauzenberg in Bavaria, Germany, Danner technicians were faced with the challenge of developing a functional control flap solution to help protect the industrial premises some 500 m further downstream from possible floods. For this purpose, the old overflow crest is soon to be replaced by a new, hydraulically operated control flap. As the water level was required not to rise, this led to a device with rather extreme proportions: 16 m in length and just 0.8 m high. For the Danner technicians, this meant they had to come up with a highly solid, torsion resistant solution. So in August 2014 they went into high gear, working a busy schedule at the production site in Pettenbach to complete the control gate. This contract once again underscores the ability of Danner Maschienenbau GmbH to master the most complex of requirements.