Kaplan turbine: run-of-river power plants all over the world use it

A mechanical engineer goes to Brno

Kaplan was born in Mürzzuschlag in 1876. His father was a railway official, so the family moved several times. The third-born child attended school in Vienna, where he also studied mechanical engineering at the Technical University. After military service in Istria in the Imperial and Royal Navy and a job in the Leobersdorf machine factory, Kaplan moved to what was then still Austria Brünnwhere he also met his wife Margarete.

Around 1910, Kaplan began working on a new type of turbine that resembled a ship’s propeller (another red-white-red invention). Through adjustable rotor blades Different flow speeds should be translated into a constant rotation speed. This made the turbine ideal for run-of-river power plants with a low gradient. It was able to achieve greater efficiency there than what was previously used Francis-Turbine to reach.

Tried out turbine variants in miniature models

The machine factory By Ignaz Store recognized the potential early and helped Kaplan set up a laboratory at the Brno University of Technology. In Miniature models The inventor tried out a wide variety of variants. “This hasn’t been done before,” says Katharina Stuhrberg from the Vienna Technical Museum. “Turbines were developed in large test facilities.” Kaplan himself was convinced of his idea from the start. He invited industrialists to view his experimental setup. However, out of caution, he kept secret how exactly his turbine worked. Your intellectual property should not fall into the wrong hands.

Kaplan, who is described as a very humorous person, did not shy away from challenging others wrong track to send. He told a visitor that the secret of his turbine lay in the air it injected. Shortly afterwards, the person he spoke to filed a corresponding patent, says Stuhrberg. “He probably meant it as a joke, but it came out differently.”

Problems overcome with your own invention

In 1919, the first example of the Kaplan turbine went into operation in a Lower Austrian knitting yarn factory. The comparatively small machine was built by Storek. However, the turbine wheels quickly grew to completely different dimensions and were used in more and more factories and power plants. After just a few years, however, a problem arose. Through the so-called Cavitation phenomenon Gas bubbles burst like a bang in the water flow, the turbines and Pipes damaged. A solution had to be found in no time at all, which Storek engineers succeeded in doing. Repairing the damage that had occurred placed a heavy burden on the company, but it avoided bankruptcy and was able to continue marketing the turbine.

Meanwhile, Kaplan’s Patent heatedly argued in court. This was a great burden for the author. As early as 1922, Kaplan became seriously ill. In the years that followed, the technician, who taught at the university and was very popular because of his clear lectures, became increasingly ill in health.

Crazy escapades on Lake Attersee

In 1931 Kaplan retired and from then on lived on Lake Attersee. The inventor, who has now become a celebrity, caused a stir there because he had ravens and… Monkeys as pets held.

When the capuchin monkeys once escaped from their cage and wreaked havoc on Kaplan’s study, media reports said that the animals had bitten through banknotes worth 1,000 shillings – which Kaplan later denied. In 1934 Kaplan died of a stroke. In 1962, Kaplan’s face adorned the blue one 1.000-Schilling-Banknote. Apparently Kaplan’s grandchild asked his grandmother about it cheekily in a letter around a “blue picture of grandpa“.

Error culture cultivated

Kaplan was remembered by those around him as a brilliant inventor who could completely lose himself in a task Value of failure recognized. Stuhrberg brings up the anecdote of a student who applied to be an assistant at Kaplan. When asked “Have you botched something yet?”, he had to answer “Yes”, which surprisingly immediately led to the question: “When can you start?”

The Styrian company Andritz is now one of the largest manufacturers of Kaplan turbines alongside Voith (Germany). The rotors, which are used in a variety of different designs in power plants, have today up to 10 meters in diameter. Not far from the company headquarters in Graz Viktor Kaplan Elementary School.