E-charging stations at the Playmobil Funpark
Knights, Indians and construction workers – these were the first play figures that the Brandstätter company from Zirndorf near Nuremberg launched on the market under the “Playmobil” brand in 1974. Since then, around 4,000 figure variants have been created. Today, around 3.5 billion Playmobil figures populate children’s rooms all over the world. In 2000, the Playmobil Fun Park was opened, a leisure park with play worlds covering an area of around 90,000 square meters. Every year, around 1 million visitors flock to Zirndorf for the occasion. To improve access by bus, the bus stop in front of the main entrance has now been moved a few meters and made barrier-free. In the process, four new parking spaces for charging electric vehicles were created, which were paved with a very special concrete paving system.
“Against the backdrop of the energy transition, e-charging stations and the associated parking spaces are very important to us,” says Martin Bscheidl, Head of Energy Market at Stadtwerke Zirndorf. “So it made sense to convert the space in front of the main entrance to the Playmobil Funpark, which had become free due to the relocation of the bus stop, into 4 parking spaces for electric vehicles.” One thing was particularly important to the operator of the charging stations when paving the 300 square meter area: “The surface should be designed in a green shade to match the sustainable drive system,” says Bscheidl. “But because green concrete paving stones are very rare, it wasn’t easy to find them.” In the end, the municipal utilities found what they were looking for at the Angermüller concrete plant near Coburg. This company was able to produce stones with a blasted surface in the color granite green. “This surface was exactly what we wanted,” says Bscheidl.
Green and stable
But are the bricks also suitable for withstanding the pushing and shearing forces of the vehicles that maneuver on the surfaces every day in order to take up the optimum position in relation to the charging station? Rainer Ultsch, sales representative at Angermüller, answers this question: “We supplied our Einstein paving here. This has a special joint technology. Loads acting on the surface cannot harm the paving,” explains Ultsch. The reason for this is the D-point, which ensures that there is only minimal point contact at the bottom edges of the stones when they are laid. Unlike many other interlocking pavers with spacer or interlocking cam systems, the proportion of the surface where the stones touch is therefore very small. This prevents crunching, the joint required to absorb traffic loads is always maintained, thus ensuring optimum force transmission between the stones.
Martin Bscheidl concludes: “In the near future, the town of Zirndorf is planning numerous additional e-charging stations. As the operator, Stadtwerke will gladly continue to rely on the green Einstein pavement from Angermüller.
