Europe’s first wafer factory

During Monteverdi’s tenure as owner of former KRUPP Stahl Altbach, he was responsible for the design, construction and erection of Europe’s first Wafer Factory, contracted by Hitachi of Japan and built in Landshut, Bavaria.

This unique structure was to be designed so that silicone crystals could be molded during a 48 hour period in completely vibration free, clean air environment. These requirements offered challenges on the type of structure to be chosen, ranging from earthquake free impacts to airplane vibration free construction.

Monteverdi chose a structure that was a first of its kind in Europe, a combination of specialized truss systems with unique cross points never designed before and embedded composite construction elements.

In order to obtain verification for this first of its kind structural design, he used the services of universities in Germany and Poland to perform element testings before going into fabrication of the structure. The image shows the erection process of the on-site pre-erected trusses that had a span of 50 m and a weight of 100 tons using Europe’s largest crane to lift in place.

The structure was erected in the winter of 1990 / 1991.